Partridge
//ˈpɑɹtɹɪd͡ʒ// name, noun
name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any bird of a number of genera in the family Phasianidae, notably in the genera Perdix and Alectoris.
"On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me a partridge in a pear tree."
- 2 valued as a game bird in eastern United States and Canada wordnet
- 3 The flesh or meat of this bird eaten as food. uncountable
- 4 a popular North American game bird; named for its call wordnet
- 5 A type of cannon charge composed of several missiles fired all together, similar to langrage or case-shot. Also a large cannon that shoots stones. obsolete
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- 6 small Old World gallinaceous game birds wordnet
- 7 heavy-bodied small-winged South American game bird resembling a gallinaceous bird but related to the ratite birds wordnet
- 8 flesh of either quail or grouse wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
"Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]"
- 2 A minor city in Reno County, Kansas, United States, named after the bird.
Example
More examples"There's no partridge in that pear tree."
Etymology
From Middle English partrich, partriche, pertriche, perdriz, from Old French perdriz, partriz, from Latin perdīx (“partridge”), from Ancient Greek πέρδιξ (pérdix, “partridge”), probably from πέρδομαι (pérdomai, “to fart”).
Related phrases
More for "partridge"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.