Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A harmful action, especially one undertaken unknowingly or with good intentions.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Service resulting in harm rather than benefit; an ill turn, intentional or unintentional.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Injury; mischief.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An ill turn or injury.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an act intended to help that turns out badly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dis- + service.

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Examples

  • A terrible disservice is done to the half-million to one million non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children whenever our community commissions yet another study to demonstrate how different the intermarried are from the in-married.

    Paul Golin: What Is the Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community? Paul Golin 2010

  • Maternal health seems to be a second class citizen; in doing so, a disservice is being done to that baby.

    A Good Birth | Her Bad Mother 2010

  • A terrible disservice is done to the half-million to one million non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children whenever our community commissions yet another study to demonstrate how different the intermarried are from the in-married.

    Paul Golin: What Is the Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community? Paul Golin 2010

  • A terrible disservice is done to the half-million to one million non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children whenever our community commissions yet another study to demonstrate how different the intermarried are from the in-married.

    Paul Golin: What Is the Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community? Paul Golin 2010

  • A terrible disservice is done to the half-million to one million non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children whenever our community commissions yet another study to demonstrate how different the intermarried are from the in-married.

    Paul Golin: What Is the Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community? Paul Golin 2010

  • Of equal disservice is the constant attacks on a much more viable candidate because she is a woman.

    Poll of polls: Obama losing ground 2008

  • Of equal disservice is the constant attacks on a much more viable candidate because she is a woman.

    Poll of polls: Obama losing ground 2008

  • I am posting this remark because I believe a great disservice is being done those reading these forums by the person presenting this incorrect information.

    Insurance for "Tourist" Automobiles 2005

  • I wonder if a disservice is being done, however inadvertantly, by not putting thoughts down on paper rather than on the screen.

    Academic Blogging: Officially Un-Cool Richard Nokes 2005

  • While I understand the temptation to reach for a shorthand to talk about New Amsterdam, generalizations like "alt-classical" really do the label a disservice as they mischaracterize the work of so many constituent artists and rob them of the creative idiosyncracies they've worked so hard to achieve.

    NewMusicBox 2010

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