perch

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɜːtʃ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɝt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)tʃ

From Middle English perche, from Old French perche, from Latin perca, from Ancient Greek πέρκη (pérkē, “perch”), cognate with περκνός (perknós, “dark-spotted”).

yellow perch (Perca flavescens)

perch (plural perches or perch)

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

• (fish in genus Perca): Balkhash perch, European perch, yellow perch
• (fish in family Percidae): darter, pike-perch, zander
• (fish in order Perciformes): bass

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

perch (plural perches or perch)

1. A rod, staff, tree branch, ledge, etc., used as a roost by a bird.
   • 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:

     We know him now: […] / Not making his high place the lawless perch / Of wing'd ambitions, nor a vantage-ground / For pleasure; […]

2. A pole connecting the fore gear and hind gear of a spring carriage; a reach.
3. (figuratively) A position that is secure and advantageous, especially one which is prominent or elevated.
   • 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, archived from the original on 4 March 2021:

     Last year, Eighth Grade found poignancy and humor in its eponymous time period: that purgatorial perch between childhood and adulthood.

   • 2022 August 1, Off the Leash, Darwin, NT, page 12, column 1:

     [W]inning Wimbledon at just 19 years, earning her rightful place on the perch as world number one.

4. (figuratively) A position that is overly elevated or haughty.
   • 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:

     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, […]

5. (dated) A linear measure of 5+¹⁄₂ yards, equal to a rod, a pole or ¹⁄₄ chain; the related square measure.
6. A cubic measure of stonework equal to 16.6 × 1.5 × 1 feet.
7. (textiles) A frame used to examine cloth.
8. A bar used to support a candle, especially in a church.
9. (theater) A platform for lights to be directed at the stage.

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

1. (intransitive) To rest on a perch (especially, of a bird); to roost.

   The macaw perched on Jim's shoulder.

2. (intransitive) To sit upon the edge of something.
   • 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:

     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.

3. (intransitive) To stay in an elevated position.
4. (transitive) To place something on (or as if on) a perch.
   • 2012 September 7, Dominic Fifield, “England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova”, in The Guardian‎:

     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.

5. (transitive, intransitive, textiles) To inspect cloth using a perch.

• “perch”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “perch”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

perch

1. Alternative form of perche (“pole”)