serried, ppl. a.
(ˈsɛrɪd)
[app. f. serry + -ed1; but perhaps a graphic representation of serred, pa. pple. of serr, pronounced as a disyllable. The modern currency of the word is app. due to Scott.]
Of files or ranks of armed men: Pressed close together, shoulder to shoulder, in close order.
| 1667 Milton P.L. i. 548 Thronging Helms Appear'd, and serried Shields in thick array. Ibid. vi. 599 Nor serv'd it to relax thir serried files. 1757 W. Wilkie Epigoniad ii. 39 The Theban chief survey'd The close-compacted ranks..To find where least the serried orb could bear The strong impression of a pointed war. a 1785 Glover Athenaid ii. 226 No engine..To man destructive, like his own fell hand In serried fight. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xxxiv, Linked in the serried phalanx tight. 1814 ― Ld. of Isles v. xv, Shield compact and serried spear. 1828 Tytler Hist. Scot. I. 164 To present a serried front to the enemy. 1859 Jephson Brittany xii. 192 The French ranks were so serried that..you could not throw an apple but it would fall upon a helmet or a lance. 1879 Green Readings Eng. Hist. xv. 74 The Norman horsemen, in serried line and with lances at rest. |
b. Of things likened to ranks of soldiers.
| 1834 Lytton Pompeii iii. ix, The dark ranks of the serried clouds. 1857 Gosse Omphalos iii. 57 An enormous Frog (Labyrinthodon),..apparently allied, in its serried teeth,..to the Crocodiles. 1858 Longfellow M. Standish v. 13 The serried billows, advancing. 1883 ‘Ouida’ Wanda I. 31 The gorges, dark with the serried pines. |
c. Of argument, etc.: Closely reasoned, compact in expression.
| 1899 Blackw. Mag. No. 1001. 511 To follow a long or serried argument. 1910 Edin. Rev. Jan. 93 His composition is lucid, logical, serried. |
¶ Misused for serrated.
| 1848 B. Webb Cont. Ecclesiol. 173 The bleak crags are serried by the numerous torrents which fall straight into the lake. ? 186. B. Harte Friar Pedro's Ride in Fiddletown, etc. (1873) 111 The morning came above the serried coast. |