[pur-puh
l] 
noun, -pler, -plest, adjective, verb, -pled, -pling.| 1. | any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, esp. one deep in tone. |
| 2. | cloth or clothing of this hue, esp. 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. |
| 6. | deep red; crimson. |
| 7. | 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. |
| 8. | of the color purple. |
| 9. | imperial, regal, or princely. |
| 10. | brilliant or showy. |
| 11. | full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric: a purple passage in a novel. |
| 12. | profane or shocking, as language. |
| 13. | to make or become purple. |
| 14. | born in or to the purple, of royal or exalted birth: Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye. |