''perch'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''perch'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20250825002311-00-⌔

perch - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

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perch (plural perches or perch)

• Any of the three species of spiny - finned freshwater fish in the genus Perca.
• Any of the about 200 related species of fish in the taxonomic family Percidae, especially:
  • (South Africa) Acanthopagrus berda
  • (Ghana) Distichodus engycephalus, Distichodus rostratus
  • (Australia) Johnius belangerii, Macquaria ambigua, Macquaria colonorum, Macquaria novemaculeata, Nemadactylus macropterus
  • (US) Kyphosus azureus
  • (UK) Lateolabrax japonicus, Tautogolabrus adspersus
• Several similar species in the order Perciformes, such as the grouper.

Noun

perch (plural perches or perch)

• A rod, staff, tree branch, ledge, etc., used as a roost by a bird.
  • ✤ We know him now: […]/Not making his high place the lawless perch/Of wing’d ambitions, nor a vantage-ground/For pleasure; […]¹
• A pole connecting the fore gear and hind gear of a spring carriage; a reach.
• (figuratively) A position that is secure and advantageous, especially one which is prominent or elevated.
  • ✤ Last year, Eighth Grade found poignancy and humor in its eponymous time period: that purgatorial perch between childhood and adulthood.²
  • ✤ [W]inning Wimbledon at just 19 years, earning her rightful place on the perch as world number one.³
• (figuratively) A position that is overly elevated or haughty.
  • ✤ You may thanke me, (Lady)/I haue taken you off your mellancholly pearch,/Boare you vpon my fiſt, and ſhew’d you game,/And let you flie at it: I pray the kiſſe me, […]⁴
• (dated) A linear measure of 5 +${}^1$ ⁄${}_2$ yards, equal to a rod, a pole or${}^1$ ⁄${}_4$ chain; the related square measure.
  • ✤ The whole surface of the country is divided into irregular patches, following the undulations of the ground, from many acres to a few perches in extent, each of which is itself perfectly level, but stands a few inches or several feet above or below those adjacent to it.⁵
• A cubic measure of stonework equal to 16.6 × 1.5 × 1 feet.
• (textiles) A frame used to examine cloth.
• A bar used to support a candle, especially in a church.
• (theater) A platform for lights to be directed at the stage.

Verb

perch (third-person singular simple present perches, present participle perching, simple past and past participle perched)

• (intransitive) To rest on a perch (especially, of a bird); to roost.
  • ✤ The macaw perched on Jim’s shoulder.
• (intransitive) To sit upon the edge of something.
  • ✤ The platform was already crowded, but the newcomers threaded their way to the front amid a decorous murmur of welcome. Mr. Peeble shoved and exhorted and two end seats emerged upon which Enid and Malone perched themselves.⁶
• (intransitive) To stay in an elevated position.
• (transitive) To place something on (or as if on) a perch.
  • ✤ The most obvious beneficiary of the visitors’superiority was Frank Lampard. By the end of the night he was perched 13th in the list of England’s most prolific goalscorers, having leapfrogged Sir Geoff Hurst to score his 24th and 25th international goals. No other player has managed more than the Chelsea midfielder’s 11 in World Cup qualification ties, with this a display to roll back the years.⁷
• (transitive, intransitive, textiles) To inspect cloth using a perch.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /pɜːtʃ/
• (US) IPA: /pɝt͡ʃ/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ

Etymology 1

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin perca, from Ancient Greek πέρκη (pérkē, “perch”), cognate with περκνός (perknós, “dark-spotted”). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ﹡perḱ-, whence also Old English forn (“trout”), German Forelle (“trout”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin pertica (“staff, long pole, measuring rod”).

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

1. 1874, Alfred Tennyson, “Dedication”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; V), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 8: ↩

2. 2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club ‎${}^{[1]}$, archived from the original on 4 March 2021: ↩

3. 2022 August 1, Off the Leash, Darwin, NT, page 12, column 1: ↩

4. 1612–1613 (date written), John Webster, The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, for Iohn Waterson, […], published 1623, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv: ↩

5. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 236: ↩

6. 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes an Evening in Strange Company”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019: ↩

7. 2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

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