2. Perception. [R.] Dr. H. More.
Perceptible
(Per*cep"ti*ble) a. [L. perceptibilis: cf. F. perceptible. See Perceive.] Capable of being
perceived; cognizable; discernible; perceivable.
With a perceptible blast of the air.
Bacon. — Per*cep"ti*ble*ness, n. — Per*cep"ti*bly, adv.
Perception
(Per*cep"tion) n. [L. perceptio: cf. F. perception. See Perceive.]
1. The act of perceiving; cognizance by the senses or intellect; apperhension by the bodily organs, or by
the mind, of what is presented to them; discernment; apperhension; cognition.
2. (Metaph.) The faculty of perceiving; the faculty, or peculiar part, of man's constitution by which he
has knowledge through the medium or instrumentality of the bodily organs; the act of apperhending material
objects or qualities through the senses; — distinguished from conception. Sir W. Hamilton.
Matter hath no life nor perception, and is not conscious of its own existence.
Bentley. 3. The quality, state, or capability, of being affected by something external; sensation; sensibility. [Obs.]
This experiment discovereth perception in plants.
Bacon. 4. An idea; a notion. [Obs.] Sir M. Hale.
"The word perception is, in the language of philosophers previous to Reid, used in a very extensive
signification. By Descartes, Malebranche, Locke, Leibnitz, and others, it is employed in a sense almost
as unexclusive as consciousness, in its widest signification. By Reid this word was limited to our faculty
acquisitive of knowledge, and to that branch of this faculty whereby, through the senses, we obtain a
knowledge of the external world. But his limitation did not stop here. In the act of external perception
he distinguished two elements, to which he gave the names of perception and sensation. He ought
perhaps to have called these perception proper and sensation proper, when employed in his special
meaning." Sir W. Hamilton.
Perceptive
(Per*cep"tive) a. [Cf. F. perceptif.] Of or pertaining to the act or power of perceiving; having
the faculty or power of perceiving; used in perception. "His perceptive and reflective faculties." Motley.
Perceptivity
(Per`cep*tiv"i*ty) n. The quality or state of being perceptive; power of perception. Locke.
Percesoces
(||Per*ces"o*ces) n. pl. [NL., fr. L. perca a perch + esox, -ocis, a pike.] (Zoöl.) An order
of fishes including the gray mullets the barracudas, the silversides, and other related fishes. So called
from their relation both to perches and to pikes.
Perch
(Perch) n. [Written also pearch.] [OE. perche, F. perche, L. perca, fr. Gr. pe`rkh; cf. perkno`s
dark-colored, Skr. p&rsdotçni spotted, speckled, and E. freckle.] (Zoöl.)
1. Any fresh-water fish of the genus Perca and of several other allied genera of the family Percidæ, as
the common American or yellow perch (Perca flavescens, or Americana), and the European perch (P.
fluviatilis).
2. Any one of numerous species of spiny-finned fishes belonging to the Percidæ, Serranidæ, and related
families, and resembling, more or less, the true perches.
Black perch. (a) The black bass. (b) The flasher. (c) The sea bass. — Blue perch, the cunner.
— Gray perch, the fresh-water drum. — Red perch, the rosefish. — Red-bellied perch, the long-
