- (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.
- 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.
- (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.
- Geology.
- (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.
- (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.
- the simple past tense and past participle of perch1.
