DESERVED

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does deserved mean? 

• DESERVED (adjective)
  The adjective DESERVED has 1 sense:

1. properly deserved

  Familiarity information: DESERVED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESERVED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Properly deserved

Synonyms:

deserved; merited

Context example:

a merited success

Similar:

condign (fitting or appropriate and deserved; used especially of punishment)

 Context examples 

I could dare it for the sake of any friend who deserved my adherence; as you, I am sure, do.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am not sorry you lost them, for you broke the rules, and deserved some punishment for disobedience, was the severe reply, which rather disappointed the young lady, who expected nothing but sympathy.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

His liberality had a rich repayment, and the general goodness of his intentions by her deserved it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Sleep, or repose that deserved the name of sleep, was out of the question.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

His good looks and his rank had one fair claim on his attachment; since to them he must have owed a wife of very superior character to any thing deserved by his own.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Your stepsister has long deserved death; tonight when she is asleep I will come and cut her head off.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

In addition to their well-deserved reputation as beautiful cosmic objects, comets hold vital clues about our solar system's history.

(Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic First Landing on a Comet, NASA)

Themselves, they had covered twelve hundred miles with two days’ rest, and in the nature of reason and common justice they deserved an interval of loafing.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

She must be well brought up, and well guarded from reposing any foolish confidences where they are not deserved.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)