serve time
Complete a sentence
To serve time is to be incarcerated as punishment for a crime: He served time for armed robbery.
The phrase treats imprisonment as a debt being paid through duration—you serve your sentence until the time is complete.
After serving time, she struggled to find employment.
- jailDetention facility
- incarcerationConfinement in jail
- penitentiaryFacility for convicted criminals
- cell blockPrison housing unit
- convictJailed offender after trial
orange jumpsuit · prison · state prison · confinement · parole · early release · behind bars · sentence · prison sentence · punishment · detention · porridge · stretch · halfway house · banged up · reintegration · criminal record · years
- servesace, fault, let, double fault, ball toss