noun 1.any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
2.cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.
3.the rank or office of a cardinal.
4.the office of a bishop.
5.imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.
EXPAND7.any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Basilarchia astyanax (red-spotted purple), having blackish wings spotted with red, or Basilarchia arthemis (banded purple or white admiral), having brown wings banded with white.
COLLAPSE adjective 9.imperial, regal, or princely.
11.full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric: a purple passage in a novel.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object) 13.to make or become purple.
Idiom14.born in/to the purple, of royal or exalted birth: Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.