(pûrch) noun
1. A staff, pole, or slat, variously used, especially as a roost for poultry, etc.; any place on which birds alight or rest; hence, any elevated seat or situation.
2. A measure: one rod (16.5 feet), or, in surveying, a square rod; also, in stonework, a variable measure, usually about 25 cubic feet.
3. A bracket or corbel; a console.
4. A frame on which cloth is examined for imperfections.
5. A pole set to mark a shallow place in navigable water.
6. A pole connecting the fore gear and hind gear of a spring carriage; a reach.
—v.i.
1. To alight or sit on or as on a perch; roost.
—v.t.
2. To set on or as on a perch.
3. To examine (cloth) on a perch. [<OF perche <L pertica a pole]

(pûrch) noun
1. A small, spiny–finned, predaceous, fresh–water fish (genus Perca); especially, the common European perch (P. fluviatilis), and the American yellow perch (P. flavescens).
2. One of various other similar or related fishes, including many marine forms. [<OF perche <L perca <Gk. perkē,? <perknos dark–colored]