c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 110 (MED) In ful greet sijknes whanne þe sensual inward and outward wittis ben not hurtid in her instrumentis neiþer troublid in her subserving to resoun wiþ stronge and inaccordyng humoris or distemperat qualitees, þe resoun haþ more fre vss in resonyng þan he haþ in tyme of helþe.

1671 R. Baxter Divine Appointment of Lords Day Proved 235 The Bodily Rest is no longer Ceremonial or shadowy, but fitted to the promoting and subserving of the spiritual Activity.

1821 Christian Jrnl. Oct. 315/1 That zeal..has yet shown itself to have been but an artifice for the subserving of low, selfish, and vain-glorious views.

1848 J. B. Burke Patrician 5 251 His subserving procured for him the Marquisate of Winchester.

1906 Wilson's Photographic Mag. June 269/1 His sole aim as a photographer has been to please the public... Such subserving is apt to call forth an immense disdain.

1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy i. i. ii. iii. 23 Ligaments, are they that tye the Bones together, and other parts to the Bones, with their subseruing tendons.

1662 J. Darley Glory Chelsy Colledge Revived 17 The grand Wolves, and..the subserving Heresies of the little Foxes.

1833 E. Livingston Syst. Penal Law State Louisiana 163 If a wicked and corrupt legislature should try to repress any discussion of their proceedings..and if a subserving judiciary should be found to execute their unconstitutional statutes—where is the remedy?

1893 Advance (Chicago) 2 Nov. Combine..against the ring and its boss and its subserving tool that now fills the Mayor's chair.

1919 L. J. Llewellyn & A. B. Jones Pensions & Princ. of their Eval. xxii. 508 If the faculty of voluntary mobility is to find adequate expression, the volume and consistency of the subserving muscles must be unimpaired.

2008 A. Bandura in J. Baer et al. Are we Free? vi. 112 People intentionally control functional activities at the macrobehavioral level that activate the subserving events at the microneural level.