| 释义 |
▪ I. percher1|ˈpɜːtʃə(r)|
[f. perch v.1 and v.2 + -er1: cf. F. percheur.]
A person or animal that perches.
I. From perch v.2
†1. One who aspires to a high position; a self-assertive person. Obs.
1581Mulcaster Positions iv. 16 So is it worthy praise to rest in some degree which declareth a pearcher, though abilitie restraine will that it cannot aspire whervnto it would.
II. From perch v.1
2. A bird that perches.
1775White in Phil. Trans. LXV. 260 [The young swallows] then are conducted to the dead..bough of some tree, where..they are attended with great assiduity, and may then be called perchers.
3. spec. A bird having feet adapted for perching; a member of the Insessores or perching birds.
1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 267/1 The perchers..always live in pairs. 1873W. Cory Lett. & Jrnls. (1897) 304 Singers and perchers are scarce where the land is too dry for worms. 1884Century Mag. XXVIII. 489 Entirely a ground bird and not a percher.
4. A person perched on a height or eminence.
1814in C. W. Hatfield Hist. Notices Doncaster (1866) 86 The approach of the badger..was to be signalled by the percher [who has perched himself in a tree].
5. A workman employed in perching cloth (see perch v.1 5); a burler. [OF. percheur.]
1890Cent. Dict. s.v. Perch2, v., The cloth is stretched in a frame, and the percher carefully examines the whole texture for imperfections, which may consist of burs and knots, which he carefully removes, or of holes, which he nicely darns.
6. slang. A dying person. (Cf. perch v.1 6.)
1714Bolingbroke Let. to J. Grahme 21 Jan. in J. Bagot Col. J. Grahme (1886) 28 The Queen is well, though the Whigs giue out that she is, what they wish her, ‘a percher’.
7. See quot. (Perh. a different word.)
1891Wrench Winchester Word-bk., Percher, a Latin cross laid horizontally against the name of an absentee on any roll. [Remembered by Rev. C. B. Mount in 1839.]
8. Cricket. A ball that ‘perches’ or hangs in the air; spec. = bouncer 6.
1913Cricket 14 June 305/2 Every bowler pitches short sometimes, and..the resultant ‘rib-roaster’, ‘percher’, ‘flier’, ‘bouncer’,..is no more than an ordinary risk. 1961Times 23 June 4/1 As big a percher as can ever have been missed in a match between England and Australia.
▪ II. † percher2 Obs.
Also 5 -ere, -or, (pierchier), 5–6 perchour, 6 pearcher.
[f. perch n.2 (sense 2 b), i.e. ‘candle for placing on a perch’. The forms suggest an AF. *percher = F. *perchier, L. type *perticāri-us, but examples are wanting.]
A tall candle, of wax or tallow: see quot. 1706.
a1331Mem. Multorum Hen. Prior Canterb. in MS. Cott. Galba E. iv. lf. 45 Item, candele que vocantur perchers continent in longitudine xv pollices; unde xviij perchers pond. j. li. cere. c1374Chaucer Troylus iv. 1245 Ffor by þe percher [v.r. morter] which þat I se brenne I knowe wel þat day is not fer henne. 1392–3Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 252 Pro iiij. torches et perchers [MS. p̸cħs] emptis. 1426–7Rec. St. Mary at Hill 67 For a pound perchors for lyȝt to þe werke men i d ob. 1432Nottingham Rec. II. 130 In torches..priketes et pierchiers. c1440Promp. Parv. 393/2 Percher, candylle,..perticalis. 1513Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 279 Drawe the curtynes, than se there be morter or waxe of perchoures be redy. 1562A. Broke tr. Rom. & Jul. Shaks. Wks. 1803 XX. 324 In her hand a percher light The nurce beares up the stayre. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades ii. i. (1592) 103 Seneca sayth, Let..no man sette pearchers or taper light before the Gods. 1613–18Daniel Coll. Hist. Eng. (1626) 104 Forty great long perchers of the Kings best candles. 1706Phillips, Perchers, the Paris-Candles formerly us'd in England; also the bigger sort of Candles, especially of Wax, which were commonly set upon the Altars. |