disservice

English

Etymology

From dis- +‎ service.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪ(s)ˈsɜːvɪs/
• (US) enPR: dis·sər´vĭs, IPA^(key): /dɪ(s)ˈsɝvɪs/

Noun

disservice (countable and uncountable, plural disservices)

1. Service that results in harm; an (intentionally or unintentionally) unhelpful, harmful action.

   One renders young people a disservice by heaping unearned rewards on them.

   • 2014, Michele Kaschub, Janice Smith, Promising Practices in 21st Century Music Teacher Education, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

     Often schools of music focus solely on the canon of Western classical art music, but this is a disservice to music educators who will have to deal with students from many different backgrounds and preferences.

   • 2018 July 5, Sam Greer, “Games want to offer us many roads but Kentucky Route Zero is the one road that matters”, in Eurogamer‎^[1]:

     Treating narratives like something you can stretch out to give more value does a disservice to players and our engagement.

Translations

service that results in harm

• Armenian: արջի ծառայություն (arǰi caṙayutʻyun, literally “bear's service”)
• Belarusian: мядзве́джая паслу́га f (mjadzvjédžaja paslúha, literally “bear's service”)
• Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} лоша услуга f (loša usluga)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ^{(please verify)} 幫倒忙／帮倒忙 (zh) (bāngdàománg)

• Czech: medvědí služba (cs) f (literally “bear's service”)
• Finnish: karhunpalvelus (fi) (literally “bear's service”)
• French: mauvais service m, desservice (fr) m
• Georgian: დათვური სამსახური (datvuri samsaxuri)
• German: Bärendienst (de) m (literally “bear's service”), schlechter Dienst m, Schaden (de) m
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} ひどい仕打ち (ひどいしうち, hidoi shiuchi)
• Lithuanian: meškos paslauga f (literally “bear's service”)
• Polish: niedźwiedzia przysługa (pl) f (literally “bear's service”)
• Portuguese: desserviço m
• Romanian: deserviciu (ro) n
• Russian: медве́жья услу́га (ru) f (medvéžʹja uslúga, literally “bear's service”)
• Spanish: flaco favor
• Swedish: björntjänst (sv) c (literally “bear's service”)
• Ukrainian: ведме́жа по́слуга f (vedméža pósluha, literally “bear's service”)

Verb

disservice (third-person singular simple present disservices, present participle disservicing, simple past and past participle disserviced)

1. To disserve, to provide a disservice to; to provide harmful or inadequate service to.
   • 1975, Sarah Katharine Thomson, Learning resource centers in community colleges:

     One librarian said, "I could double the circulation tomorrow by closing the periodical stacks and counting every time I handed out a magazine, but I would be disservicing our readers."

Translations

disserve — see disserve

Related terms

• disserve

References

• “disservice”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “disservice”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.