Word Direct Answers

What does "perch" mean?

Perch: Any one of numerous species of spiny-finned fishes belonging to the Percidæ, Serranidæ, 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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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. 3.(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.
  3. 4.To alight or settle, as a bird; to sit or roost. Wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch. Shak.
  4. 5.To place or to set on, or as on, a perch.
  5. 6.To occupy as a perch. Milton.

Sources