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''partridge'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260313192153-00-⌔

partridge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

partridge (plural partridges or partridge)

  • (ornithology) Any bird of a number of genera in the family Phasianidae, notably in the genera Perdix and Alectoris.
    • ✤ On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree.
    • ✤ …and the loudest sound in the lonely fields was when, adventuring too near some late brood, the partridge sought to deceive by a plaintive cry and seeming helplessness, crossing before your very feet, till, when drawn to a sufficient distance, suddenly the air vibrated to the flutter of her active pinions.1
  • (uncountable) The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food.
  • (obsolete, military) A type of cannon charge composed of several missiles fired all together, similar to langrage or case-shot. Also a large cannon that shoots stones.

Etymology

From Middle English partrich, partriche, pertriche, perdriz, from Old French perdriz, partriz, from Latin perdīx (“partridge”), from Ancient Greek πέρδιξ (pérdix, “partridge”), probably from πέρδομαι (pérdomai, “to fart”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈpɑːtɹɪd͡ʒ/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) enPR: pärʹtrĭj, IPA: /ˈpɑɹtɹɪd͡ʒ/
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɹɪdʒ

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 80: ↩

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