serrer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French serrer, from Vulgar Latin *serrāre (“close, shut”), from Late Latin serāre (“fasten, bolt”), from Latin sera (“bolt, crossbar”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ.ʁe/, /se.ʁe/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

serrer

1. (transitive) to tighten (a screw, a knot)

   Doucement ! Ça ne sert à rien de trop serrer cette vis. ― Gently! It's no use to tighten this screw too much.

   Ton nœud de cravate n’est pas assez serré. ― Your tie's knot isn't tightened enough.

2. (transitive) to shake (hands)

   J’ai refusé de lui serrer la main. ― I refused to shake his/her hand.

3. (transitive) to squeeze

   Il lui serra le bras si fort qu’elle en garda une trace pendant trois jours. ― He squeezed her arm so hard that she had a mark on it for three days.

4. (transitive) to hug, to stay close to

   serrer la côte ― to hug the shore, to hug the coastline

5. (reflexive) to squeeze

   Ils se sont serrés pour lui faire une place.

   They squeezed together to make room for him.

6. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to shake (hands)

   Les jeunes hommes d’affaires se sont serré la main. ― The young businessmen shook each other's hands.

7. (slang, transitive) to seduce; to flirt with
8. (slang, law enforcement, transitive) to pinch (to arrest, apprehend someone)

   Synonyms: appréhender, arrêter

Conjugation

Conjugation of serrer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	serrer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	serrant /sɛ.ʁɑ̃/ or /se.ʁɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		serré /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	serre /sɛʁ/	serres /sɛʁ/	serre /sɛʁ/	serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/	serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/	serrent /sɛʁ/
	imperfect	serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrais /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrait /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/	serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/	serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/	serraient /sɛ.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁɛ/
	past historic2	serrai /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/	serras /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serra /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serrâmes /sɛ.ʁam/ or /se.ʁam/	serrâtes /sɛ.ʁat/ or /se.ʁat/	serrèrent /sɛ.ʁɛʁ/ or /se.ʁɛʁ/
	future	serrerai /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/	serreras /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/	serrera /sɛ.ʁə.ʁa/ or /se.ʁə.ʁa/	serrerons /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/	serrerez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁe/ or /se.ʁə.ʁe/	serreront /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerais /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerait /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/	serrerions /sɛ.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁə.ʁjɔ̃/	serreriez /sɛ.ʁə.ʁje/ or /se.ʁə.ʁje/	serreraient /sɛ.ʁə.ʁɛ/ or /se.ʁə.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	serre /sɛʁ/	serres /sɛʁ/	serre /sɛʁ/	serrions /sɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁjɔ̃/	serriez /sɛ.ʁje/ or /se.ʁje/	serrent /sɛʁ/
	imperfect2	serrasse /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/	serrasses /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/	serrât /sɛ.ʁa/ or /se.ʁa/	serrassions /sɛ.ʁa.sjɔ̃/ or /se.ʁa.sjɔ̃/	serrassiez /sɛ.ʁa.sje/ or /se.ʁa.sje/	serrassent /sɛ.ʁas/ or /se.ʁas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	serre /sɛʁ/	—	serrons /sɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /se.ʁɔ̃/	serrez /sɛ.ʁe/ or /se.ʁe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• desserrer
• resserrer
• serrage
• serre-joint
• serre-livres
• serre-nœud
• serrement
• serre-tête
• serrer la main
• serrer la vis
• serrer les dents
• se serrer la ceinture
• se serrer les coudes
• serrer les rangs

Further reading

• “serrer” in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse.
• “serrer” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.
• “serrer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

serrer

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of serrō