Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One that perches.
  • noun A bird whose feet are adapted for perching.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which perches; specifically, a perching bird as distinguished from birds that rest on the ground; a bird of the old order Insessores.
  • noun A workman who performs the operation of perching or burling.
  • noun A wax candle; especially, a large wax candle usually placed on an altar.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, perches.
  • noun One of the Insessores.
  • noun obsolete A Paris candle anciently used in England; also, a large wax candle formerly set upon the altar.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who fishes for perch.
  • noun One that perches.
  • noun textiles An inspector of cloth before finishing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bird with feet adapted for perching (as on tree branches); this order is now generally abandoned by taxonomists
  • noun a person situated on a perch

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

from perch ("a kind of fish")

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From perch (verb)

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From perch ("a device over which cloth is suspended for inspection")

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Examples

  • Crovax gave the percher a little shake, and it spoke again.

    Nemesis Thompson, Paul B. 2000

  • Out came a percher, its legs and wings tied with strips of ribbon.

    Nemesis Thompson, Paul B. 2000

  • Tharvello opened his hauberk and pulled out the percher he'd hidden underneath.

    Nemesis Thompson, Paul B. 2000

  • Crovax crushed the percher to a bloody pulp in his hand and threw the remains on the dying Tharvello.

    Nemesis Thompson, Paul B. 2000

  • After much shouting and dashing about, a percher appeared, flapping its narrow wings and blaring the message given to it.

    Nemesis Thompson, Paul B. 2000

  • La dsertification, l'amincissement de la couche d'ozone, la destruction de la fores tropicale, les effets pernicieux des pluies acides, autant de problmes criants sur lesquels l'humanit doit se percher avant d'arriver a un stade de dtrioration environnementale de non retour.

    Chapter 1 1990

  • Then, there is the little brown creeper which never perches and is forever creeping, creeping, upward, upward -- save, of course, when it takes to wing -- and yet its toes are arranged in the normal percher style, the hind digit having an especially long, curved claw.

    Our Bird Comrades 1896

  • It would sometimes take refuge in a bush, when the lark, not being a percher, would alight upon the ground beneath it.

    The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton John Burroughs 1879

  • However, she soon gave over these attempts at intimidation, perched beside the percher, and again put something into his maw.

    The Foot-path Way Bradford Torrey 1877

  • Them's not legs! them's slips of gutta-percher an 'steel!

    M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur." G.J. Whyte-Melville 1849

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