Definition

1. Noun:
   • Unpaid work for the public benefit as a legal penalty: Work performed without pay for the benefit of the public or a non-profit institution, often assigned by a court as an alternative to or part of a sentence for a minor offense.
   • Voluntary work for the public good: Services or activities performed by individuals or groups, typically on a voluntary basis, to improve the quality of life within a local area or for a specific public institution.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The judge sentenced the offender to 100 hours of community service. (The legal penalty involved performing unpaid work for public benefit.)
  • Many students participate in community service by volunteering at the local library. (The voluntary activity benefits a public institution.)

Advanced Usage

• "to be sentenced to community service": to receive a court order requiring unpaid public work as punishment.
  • Instead of a fine, he was sentenced to community service.
• "to perform/do community service": to complete the required or voluntary unpaid work.
  • She is performing her community service at a homeless shelter.

Variants and Related Words

• Community service order (n): A specific court order mandating an individual to perform unpaid work for the community.
  • The court issued a community service order.
• Service learning (n): An educational approach combining academic study with meaningful community service.
  • The university program includes a service learning component.

Synonyms

• Public service: Work done for the benefit of the public, though not necessarily as a legal penalty.
• Volunteer work: Unpaid work undertaken by choice, often synonymous with the voluntary sense of community service.

Related Phrases

• Complete one's community service: To finish the hours of work required by a sentence or commitment.
  • He must complete his community service by the end of the month.
• Community service hours: The quantified time period one is required or volunteers to work.
  • She logged forty community service hours for her club.

Related Idioms

• To pay one's debt to society (through community service): To make amends for a wrongdoing, often by performing beneficial public work.
  • By doing community service, he felt he was paying his debt to society.

Noun

1. an unpaid service for the benefit of the public that is performed by lawbreakers as part (or all) of their sentence
2. a service that is performed for the benefit of the public or its institutions