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Purple   /pˈərpəl/   Listen
adjective
Purple  adj.  
1.
Exhibiting or possessing the color called purple, much esteemed for its richness and beauty; of a deep red, or red and blue color; as, a purple robe.
2.
Imperial; regal; so called from the color having been an emblem of imperial authority. "Hide in the dust thy purple pride."
3.
Blood-red; bloody. "May such purple tears be alway shed." "I view a field of blood, And Tiber rolling with a purple blood."
Purple bird (Zool.), the European purple gallinule. See under Gallinule.
Purple copper ore. (Min.) See Bornite.
Purple grackle (Zool.), the crow blackbird. See under Crow.
Purple martin. See under Martin.
Purple sandpiper. See under Sandpiper.
Purple shell. See Ianthina.


noun
Purple  n.  (pl. purples)  
1.
A color formed by, or resembling that formed by, a combination of the primary colors red and blue. "Arraying with reflected purple and gold The clouds that on his western throne attend." Note: The ancient words which are translated purple are supposed to have been used for the color we call crimson. In the gradations of color as defined in art, purple is a mixture of red and blue. When red predominates it is called violet, and when blue predominates, hyacinth.
2.
Cloth dyed a purple color, or a garment of such color; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple rode or mantle worn by Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity; as, to put on the imperial purple. "Thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and purple, and scarlet."
3.
Hence: Imperial sovereignty; royal rank, dignity, or favor; loosely and colloquially, any exalted station; great wealth. "He was born in the purple."
4.
A cardinalate. See Cardinal.
5.
(Zool.) Any species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis) as, the banded purple (Basilarchia arthemis).
6.
(Zool.) Any shell of the genus Purpura.
7.
pl.(Med.) See Purpura.
8.
pl. A disease of wheat. Same as Earcockle. Note: Purple is sometimes used in composition, esp. with participles forming words of obvious signification; as, purple-colored, purple-hued, purple-stained, purple-tinged, purple-tinted, and the like.
French purple. (Chem.) Same as Cudbear.
Purple of Cassius. See Cassius.
Purple of mollusca (Zool.), a coloring matter derived from certain mollusks, which dyes wool, etc., of a purple or crimson color, and is supposed to be the substance of the famous Tyrian dye. It is obtained from Ianthina, and from several species of Purpura, and Murex.
To be born in the purple, to be of princely birth; to be highborn.


verb
Purple  v. t.  (past & past part. purpled; pres. part. purpling)  To make purple; to dye of purple or deep red color; as, hands purpled with blood. "When morn Purples the east." "Reclining soft in blissful bowers, Purpled sweet with springing flowers."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Purple" Quotes from Famous Books



... the shrubbery, whose splendor is always the greatest on the borders of ponds and water-courses, and frequently surpasses that of the trees. As the plain rises into the hill-side, the Ash-trees may be distinguished by their peculiar shades of salmon, mulberry, and purple, and the Hickories by their invariable yellows. The Elm, the Lime, and the Buttonwood are always blemished and rusty: they add no brilliancy to the spectacle, serving only to sober and relieve ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various
... paper passes immediately over the tub, and a boy throws on the wool. A light blow or two, of a rattan, tosses it about, and finally throws all back again into the tub that has not touched the glue. The printed part, of course, is covered with blue, or purple, or scarlet wood, and is converted, by a touch of the wand, into velvet! The process of covering a yard lasts about ten seconds, and I should think considerably more than a hundred yards of paper could be velvetized in an hour. We laughed at the discovery, and came away satisfied that Solomon ...
— Recollections of Europe • J. Fenimore Cooper
... of Disraeli's discovery, that the great colonial Governorships should go to those who had been 'born in the purple' or had married into it. It was, in a way, a matter personal to him, because the plan came into operation about the date his Pro-Consulship ceased. He felt that possibly it influenced the manner of his going, and, if so, that a wrong was done him as an individual. ...
— The Romance of a Pro-Consul - Being The Personal Life And Memoirs Of The Right Hon. Sir - George Grey, K.C.B. • James Milne
... bay, lying calm and unruffled under the summer sky, except when its glassy surface is rippled by the dip of an oar or churned into froth by the restless pulsations of a passing steamer. Across the bay the hills rise beautiful and purple-blue through the evening glow, throwing out encircling arms around the villages dotted thick and white along their base, as the arms of a mother are open wide to infold her ...
— Two Little Travellers - A Story for Girls • Frances Browne Arthur
... me, Nature, The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder, The hillside whiten'd with blossoms of the mountain ash, The same late in autumn, the hues of red, yellow, drab, purple, and light and dark green, The rich coverlet of the grass, animals and birds, the private untrimm'd bank, the primitive apples, the pebble-stones, Beautiful dripping fragments, the negligent list of one after another as I happen ...
— Leaves of Grass • Walt Whitman


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