Perch (?), n. [Written also pearch.] [OE. perche, F. perche, L. perca, fr. Gr. ; cf. dark-colored, Skr. pni spotted, speckled, and E. freckle.] Zool.
1.
Any fresh-water fish of the genus Perca and of several other allied genera of the family Percidae, as the common American or yellow perch (Perca flavescens, or Americana), and the European perch (P. fluviatilis).
2.
Any one of numerous species of spiny-finned fishes belonging to the Percidae, Serranidae, and related families, and resembling, more or less, the true perches.
Black perch. (a) The black bass. (b) The flasher. (c) The sea bass. -- Blue perch, the cunner. -- Gray perch, the fresh-water drum. -- Red perch, the rosefish. -- Red-bellied perch, the long-eared pondfish. -- Perch pest, a small crustacean, parasitic in the mouth of the perch. -- Silver perch, the yellowtail. -- Stone, or Striped, perch, the pope. -- White perch, the Roccus, or Morone, Americanus, a small silvery serranoid market fish of the Atlantic coast.
© Webster 1913.
Perch (?), n. [F. perche, L. pertica.]
1.
A pole; a long staff; a rod; esp., a pole or other support for fowls to roost on or to rest on; a roost; figuratively, any elevated resting place or seat.
As chauntecleer among his wives all
Sat on his perche, that was in his hall.
Chaucer.
Not making his high place the lawless perch
Of winged ambitions.
Tennyson.
2. (a)
A measure of length containing five and a half yards; a rod, or pole.
(b)
In land or square measure: A square rod; the 160th part of an acre.
(c)
In solid measure: A mass 16
3.
A pole connecting the fore gear and hind gear of a spring carriage; a reach.
© Webster 1913.
Perch, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Perched (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Perching.] [F. percher. See Perch a pole.]
To alight or settle, as a bird; to sit or roost.
Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch.
Shak.
© Webster 1913.
Perch, v. t.
1.
To place or to set on, or as on, a perch.
2.
To occupy as a perch.
Milton.
© Webster 1913.