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purple

[pur-puh

noun

any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.

cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.

the rank or office of a cardinal.

the office of a bishop.

imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.

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deep red; crimson.

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

of the color purple.

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.

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Purple is one of our favorite verbs.

So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:

to spend time idly; loaf.

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

13.

to make or become purple.

Idiom

14.

born in

to the purple, of royal or exalted birth: Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English purpel (noun and adj.), Old English purple (adj.), variant of purpure < Latin purpura kind of shellfish yielding purple dye, the dye, cloth so dyed < Greek porphýra; compare purpure, porphyry

Related forms

pur·ple·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To purple

Example Sentences

In this painting, made a year before his death, he is posed against a purple background wearing his.

Mixing up purple and orange plaids bread_pirate_naan.

The yellow and purple hues that should emerge in the spring will match their school colours.

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In this painting, made a year before his death, he is posed against a purple background wearing his.

Mixing up purple and orange plaids bread_pirate_naan.

The yellow and purple hues that should emerge in the spring will match their school colours.

Clusters of flower petals, dark purple on the end closest to the stem, light purple on the outer edges.

Salt deposits along the water's edge appear purple in this twilight view.

The purple bubble raft snail, which drifts on a dinghy of self-created bubbles.

We loved them in the garden, and now purple carrots are being put to use as natural dye.

The solution in the vat in front of him turns purple.

The moves to purple tennis courts or blue ones are not only about marketing tour events.

If a set of purple sparkly tights and a velvety dress is what makes my baby happy one night, then so be it.

These, in turn, are tagged with dye molecules that show up purple under a microscope.

Slender green stalk with small purple bell-shaped flowers.

But the next eight days the night skies all around the globe were filled with dazzling red, green and purple auroras.

Bees hover over bright disks of zinnias, among spires of salvia and along a purple border of asters.

Relax under purple mountain majesties, where quite literally the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope still play.

One, made of unfinished wood, has denim conveyor belts running over purple and orange plastic beads.

Allen is studying the microbial communities in the leaves of the purple pitcher plant.

Purple faces, bulging veins and blood-curdling threats.

Medium-size berry that is black to dark purple in color when ripe.

Just down the road is a patch of native lupins, laden with purple blossoms.

Purple wildflowers poke through the timbers of what appears to be a dance floor.

Bell-shaped flowers in a range of pink to purple and orange shades, from late spring to first frost.

When he dips the bomb shards into his purple stuff, the solution will show the proteins left on the improved explosive devices.

Mixing up purple and orange plaids galactic_hedgehog.

The police broke the husband's leg and beat his wife's flesh a sickly purple.

The rock is multicolored-yellow and red, purple and grey.

Look at the center of the pupil and you will see the surrounding purple rings fill with rapid illusory motion.

They looked at the hunks of purple of my plate and wrinkled their noses.

Flowers have drooping yellow or brownish purple rays and a tall, columnar brown cone.

The seats are felt and silk, the floor is leather and everything is purple and red.

Purple is a good color for evening lectures, and less funereal than all black.

They will be able to tilt the electoral balance and turn many red-or, conceivably, blue-states purple.

Musi-not wanting a car roof to impede his view-traveled in a rented purple convertible.

It caused my eyelids to turn a purple black color and they look bruised all the time.

It sat on the edge of a lake filled with purple lily pads and yellow flowers.

Prized for fragrant lavender or purple flowers, often set off by colorful bracts.

Red and purple seem to be the favoured colours this year.

The purple line is the median of the potential growth rate.

See a pollen-coated honeybee feeding at a bright purple chicory flower.

Gone were the little hints of green and purple in its eight strong multi-jointed legs.

Columns of purple porphyry and green marble were crowned by capitals so intricately carved that they seemed as fragile as lace.

Blooms in early summer, producing large blossoms in near-violet to brilliant bluish purple.

Orlando voted blue in the last two presidential elections but, generally, the middle of the state is purple.

But its hot halo of shooting blue, purple and pink lights is visible only in person.

It has large pearly petals in shades of red, pink, and purple.

Girls are always sweet in pink, yellow, and purple with cutesy sayings.

Brats chopped and mixed with pickled purple cabbage and onion.

Sacrificing some branches and opening up the shrub and suddenly it looks quite purple not to mention quite gorgeous.

Whereas in reality, pretty much everybody has preconceived and mixed views on purple people.

Snow reflects the color of the sky and, at the beginning or end of the day, often appears purple in color.

Round clusters of amethyst to purple berries remain on bare stems after willowlike.

As they mature, the tangs' color progresses from bright yellow to a deep bluish-gray or purple.

Volunteers tend to revert to cream marked with purple and yellow.

Forms with purple or variegated leaves have purple flowersVery popular culinary herb.

Clusters of fragrant purple blooms on trailing plant.

Covered with beautiful purple flowers in season more add to my plant list.

For added drama, vertical indentations were painted hunter green and purple.

Ruffled flowers are lavender pink with reddish purple eye.

Place a birdbath and pots of blooming annuals such as purple nemesia and bacopa in its center.

Valued particularly for its leaves, which combine gray green and coppery purple.

Plant three large green basils toward the rear, two purple basils toward the center, and three dwarf basils in front.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

purple (ˈpɜːp^əl)

—n
1.	any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour
2.	a dye or pigment producing such a colour
3.	cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility
4.	the purple high rank; nobility
5.	a. the official robe of a cardinal
	b. the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this
6.	the purple bishops collectively

—*adj*
7.	of the colour purple
8.	(of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery: purple prose
9.	noble or royal

[Old English, from Latin purpura purple dye, from Greek porphura the purple fish (Murex)]

'purpleness

—n

'purplish

—*adj*

'purply

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

purple

O.E. purpul, dissimilation (first recorded in Northumbrian, in Lindisfarne gospel) from purpure "purple garment," purpuren "purple," from L. purpura "purple-dyed cloak, purple dye," also "shellfish from which purple was made," from Gk. porphyra (see porphyry), of Semitic

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origin, originally the name for the shellfish (murex) from which it was obtained. Tyrian purple, produced around Tyre, was prized as dye for royal garments. As a color name, attested from late 14c. Also the color of mourning or penitence (especially in royalty or clergy). Rhetorical for "splendid, gaudy" (of prose) from 1590s. Purpur continued as a parallel form until 15c., and through 19c. in heraldry. Purple Heart, U.S. decoration for service members wounded in combat, instituted 1932; originally a cloth decoration begun by George Washington in 1782. Hendrix' Purple Haze (1967) is slang for "LSD."

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