serried
[ser-eed]
- pressed together or compacted, as soldiers in rows: serried troops.
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Origin of serried
serry
[ser-ee]
- to crowd closely together.
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Origin of serry
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for serried
Historical Examples
A thousand serried problems seemed to be pressing on me at once.
Women's Wild OatsC. Gasquoine Hartley
And how he thundered "Blaze with your serried columns, I will not bend the knee!"
The Romance of an Old FoolRoswell Field
They stood there looking down between the serried lines of trees.
A Mating in the WildsOttwell Binns
Swiftly, surely, their serried ranks were closing in on the Christian band.
With Spurs of GoldFrances Nimmo Greene
The Levitic officers were to protect the king's person with serried ranks.
The Expositor's BibleF. W. Farrar
serried
- in close or compact formationserried ranks of troops
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Word Origin
C17: from Old French serré close-packed, from serrer to shut up; see sear ²
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for serried
adj.
"pressed close together," 1667 (in "Paradise Lost"), probably a past participle adjective from serry "to press close together" (1580s), a military term, from Middle French serre "close, compact" (12c.), past participle of serrer "press close, fasten," from Vulgar Latin *serrare "to bolt, lock up," from Latin serare, from sera "a bolt, bar, cross-bar," perhaps from PIE *ser- (3) "to line up" (see series). Modern use is due to the popularity of Scott, who used it with phalanx.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper