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

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

perched

So, how has an island perched off Australia's northern tip become so obsessed with the sport?

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

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

Others perched on the wall surrounding the elevator exit of a closed-off metro station.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

And if you detour to the second-floor library, you’ll get the best view of a banana-yellow starfighter from “The Phantom Menace” that dangles over the lobby with R2-D2 perched in the tandem seat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

He followed the ship all the way back to the robot factory and perched himself up on the roof, but he didn’t know what to do next.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

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Related Words

• alight
• squat
• touch down

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