A red legged partridge.
An example of a partridge is the bird featured in "The 12 Days of Christmas."
- any of a number of medium-sized, short-tailed gallinaceous birds (family Phasianidae), esp., an Old World species (Perdix perdix) with an orange-brown head, a grayish neck, and a rust-colored tail, now established in N U.S.
- any of various birds resembling the partridge, as the ruffed grouse
Origin of partridgeMiddle English partriche ; from Old French perdriz, earlier perdiz ; from Classical Latin perdix ; from Gr, probably akin to perdesthai, to break wind (; from Indo-European base an unverified form perd- from source fart): from whirring sound made by wings on rising to fly
nounpl. partridge or par·tridg·es
- Any of various plump-bodied game birds of several genera in the family Phasianidae, native to Eurasia and Africa and introduced elsewhere.
- Any of several game birds, such as the ruffed grouse or the bobwhite, similar to a partridge.
Origin of partridgeMiddle English partrich, from Old French perdriz, alteration of perdis, from Latin perd&imacron;x, from Greek; see perd- in Indo-European roots.
male gray partridge
(plural partridges or partridge)
Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin perdÄ«x (“partridge"), from Ancient Greek Ï€ÎÏÎ´Î¹Î¾ (perdix, “partridge").