serrying

A minute's confusion, with nothing distinguishable but the flash of weapons, and they re-appeared _beyond_ the masses through whom they cut their way, prostrate figures marking their track, and were now serrying their ranks, disordered in the fierce passage.

For Fortune and Glory A Story of the Soudan War Lewis Hough 1899

"Morbleu, mon General," cry the Grenadiers serrying their ranks as the white charger makes a motion that way, "You will not leave us, you will abide with us!"

The French Revolution Thomas Carlyle 1838

Obeying his orders, Bourbon had thrown himself upon the Stradiotes; but unfortunately, carried off by his horse, he had penetrated so far into the enemy's ranks that he was lost to sight: the disappearance of their chief, the strange dress of their new antagonists, and the peculiar method of their fighting produced a considerable effect on those who were to attack them; and for the moment disorder was the consequence in the centre, and the horse men scattered instead of serrying their ranks and fighting in a body.

The Borgias Celebrated Crimes Alexandre Dumas p��re 1836

In vain did the sinuosities of the broken ground, in vain did crag and thicket, ravine and torrents’ bed impede their passage; closing their files or serrying them, as the nature of the ascent required, now wheeling into solid column, deploying now into extended line, still they rolled onward, unchecked, irresistible —

The Roman Traitor (Vol. 2 of 2) Henry William Herbert 1832