Showing results for "perched"

• past participle of perch.
• past tense form of perch.

perched

American  

[purcht] / pɜrtʃt /

adjective

1. (of a bird) resting on a perch, such as a branch, telephone wire, or fence, or a rod specially designed for the purpose.

   While hiking I caught sight of a perched owl near the trail.

2. settled or resting in a relatively high position, like a bird on a perch.

   The tour will stop for lunch in a perched village offering a splendid view of the entire French Riviera coastline.

3. Geology. (of a boulder or block) left on the top of a hill, ridge, etc., by ice that melted after carrying it there.

   As you continue hiking southeast, look out for the perched boulder overlooking a pond.

4. Geology.

   1. (of a lake) having a surface level at an unusually high elevation, well above that of aquifers and other bodies of water in the area, because it has formed on a dense, hardened layer of sand mixed with organic matter that traps water on top of it.

      Half of all the world’s known perched lakes are found on Australia’s Fraser Island.

   2. (of an aquifer) occurring above the regional water table, having been formed by an accumulation of groundwater that cannot permeate the underlying layer of clay or other dense soil.

      Perched aquifers are sometimes good water sources, but they tend to be relatively small and easily depleted with overpumping.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of perch.

Other Word Forms

• unperched
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of perched

First recorded in 1815–25; perch ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; perch ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

perched

A woman was close by talking to him, she said, before "he jumped in and crawled in front of the tiger, where the tiger was perched and just lay there".

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

The house itself serves as a time capsule of Old Hollywood glitz and glamour, with sprawling gardens and terraced lawns perched on 8.4 acres overlooking the Bel-Air Country Club.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026

Jeanne de Montagnac, 29, stood by her husband and two-year-old daughter, perched on his shoulders with a telephone number scribbled in biro pen on her arm.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

Parkinson photographed a black vulture perched over a dead yacaré caiman in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands, keeping his boat at a distance and using a long telephoto lens to capture the shot.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

When they settled, there were two goslings perched on each of the robot’s shoulders, and one was perched right on top of her head.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

Related Words

• alight
• squat
• touch down