pur·ple

(pûr′pəl)

1. Any of a group of colors with a hue between that of violet and red.

2. Cloth of a color between violet and red, formerly worn as a symbol of royalty or high office.

3. Imperial power; high rank: born to the purple.

4. Roman Catholic Church

a. The rank or office of a cardinal.

b. The rank or office of a bishop.

adj.

1. Of the color purple.

2. Royal or imperial; regal.

3. Elaborate and ornate: purple prose.

tr. & intr.v. pur·pled, pur·pling, pur·ples

To make or become purple.

[Middle English purpel, purple, dark crimson, from Old English purpul, from alteration (by dissimilation of the second r to l) of purpure, purple or dark crimson cloth, from Latin purpura, mollusk yielding Tyrian purple, Tyrian purple cloth, purple color, from Greek porphurā, of unknown origin.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

purple

(ˈpɜːpəl)

1. (Colours) any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour

2. (Dyeing) a dye or pigment producing such a colour

3. (Textiles) cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility

4. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the purple high rank; nobility

5. (Roman Catholic Church)

a. the official robe of a cardinal

b. the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this

6. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the purple bishops collectively

adj

7. (Colours) of the colour purple

8. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery: purple prose.

9. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) noble or royal

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

ˈpurpleness n

ˈpurplish adj

ˈpurply adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pur•ple

(ˈpɜr pəl)

n., adj. -pler, -plest, n.

1. any color having components of both red and blue, esp. one deep in tone.

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

3. the office of a cardinal or bishop.

4. imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.

adj.

5. of the color purple.

6. imperial, regal, or princely.

7. brilliant or showy.

8. full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric: purple prose.

9. profane or shocking, as language.

v.t., v.i.

10. to make or become purple.

Idioms:

born to the purple, of royal or exalted birth.

[before 1000; Middle English purpel (n. 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 porphyry]

pur′ple•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	purple - a purple color or pigment purpleness chromatic color, chromatic colour, spectral color, spectral colour - a color that has hue lavender - a pale purple color mauve - a moderate purple reddish purple, royal purple - a shade of purple tinged with red reddish blue, violet - a variable color that lies beyond blue in the spectrum
	2.	purple - of imperial status; "he was born to the purple" noblesse, nobility - the state of being of noble birth
Verb	1.	purple - become purple discolour, discolor, color, colour - change color, often in an undesired manner; "The shirts discolored"
	2.	purple - color purple empurple, purpurate color, color in, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film"
Adj.	1.	purple - of a color intermediate between red and blue purplish, violet chromatic - being or having or characterized by hue
	2.	purple - excessively elaborate or showily expressed; "a writer of empurpled literature"; "many purple passages"; "an over-embellished story of the fish that got away" empurpled, over-embellished rhetorical - given to rhetoric, emphasizing style at the expense of thought; "mere rhetorical frippery"
	3.	purple - belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler; "golden age of imperial splendor"; "purple tyrant"; "regal attire"; "treated with royal acclaim"; "the royal carriage of a stag's head" regal, majestic, imperial, royal noble - of or belonging to or constituting the hereditary aristocracy especially as derived from feudal times; "of noble birth"

purple

Shades of purple

amethyst, aubergine, burgundy, carmine, claret, dubonnet, gentian, gentian blue, heather, heliotrope, indigo, lavender, lilac, magenta, mauve, mulberry, pansy, peach-blow, periwinkle, plum, puce, royal purple, Tyrian purple, violet, wine

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

أرْجُوان، أرْجُوانيأُرْجُوَانِي

nachpurpurový

purpurvioletlilla

purpurn violett

πορφυρός

purpura

morado púrpura lila

purppurasinipunainenvioletti

violet pourpre violette

ljubičast

bíbor

fjólubláfjólublárfjólublár, purpuraliturfjólubláttpurpuralit

porpora viola

紫色の

자줏빛의

ostrumpurpura

purpurinė spalvapurpurinisvioletinė spalvavioletinis

purpurspurpursarkans

paars

fiolett purpur purpurfarget

purpurowy fioletowy

roxo púrpura

movpurpuriuviolet

пурпурный фиолетовый багор

purpurpurpurový

vijoličen

lila

ที่มีสีม่วง

mor

tím

紫色的紫色

purple

[ˈpɜːpl]

A. ADJ → morado
to go purple (in the face) → enrojecer
Purple Heart (US) (Mil) decoración otorgada a los heridos de guerra
purple heart → (píldora f de) anfetamina f
purple prose → prosa f de estilo inflado

B. N (= colour) → púrpura f, morado m

C. VT → purpurar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

purple

[ˈpɜː^rp^əl] adj (bluish) → violet(te); (reddish) → pourprePurple Heart n (US) décoration attribuée aux blessés de guerrepurple patch purple passage n → état m de grâce
She's enjoying a purple patch at the moment → Elle est en état de grâce en ce moment.

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

purple

adj → violett, lila; face → dunkelrot, hochrot; (pej) prose, passage → hochgestochen, hochtrabend; to go purple (in the face) → hochrot werden or anlaufen (inf)

(= colour) → Violett nt, → Lila nt

(fig) the purple (= nobility) → der Adel; (= bishops) → der Kardinalsstand; to be born to the purple → von königlichem Geblüt sein; to be raised to the purple → den Kardinalspurpur anlegen

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

purple

[ˈpɜːpl]

1. adj → viola inv
to go purple (in the face) → diventare paonazzo/a, farsi di porpora

2. n (colour) → viola m inv (Rel) the purple → la porpora

purple

(ˈpəːpl) noun, adjective

(of) a dark colour made by mixing blue and red.

purple

→ أُرْجُوَانِي purpurový purpur violett πορφυρός morado violetti violet ljubičast viola 紫色の 자줏빛의 paars purpurfarget purpurowy roxo пурпурный lila ที่มีสีม่วง mor tím 紫色的

pur·ple

n. color púrpura; morado.

purple

adj morado

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Outside, there is the stirring of birds among the leaves, or the sound of men going forth to their work, or the sigh and sob of the wind coming down from the hills and wandering round the silent house, as though it feared to wake the sleepers and yet must needs call forth sleep from her purple cave.

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As I look at the full stream, the vivid grass, the delicate bright-green powder softening the outline of the great trunks and branches that gleam from under the bare purple boughs, I am in love with moistness, and envy the white ducks that are dipping their heads far into the water here among the withes, unmindful of the awkward appearance they make in the drier world above.

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The hills, purple and arid, stood out heavily on the sky: their summits seemed to fade into a coloured tremble as of ascending vapour; their steep sides were streaked with the green of narrow ravines; at their foot lay rice-fields, plantain-patches, yellow sands.

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A frugal mind cannot defend itself from considerable bitterness when reflecting that at the Battle of Actium (which was fought for no less a stake than the dominion of the world) the fleet of Octavianus Caesar and the fleet of Antonius, including the Egyptian division and Cleopatra's galley with purple sails, probably cost less than two modern battleships, or, as the modern naval book-jargon has it, two capital units.

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A slave, he had read, had risen to the Roman purple. That being so, then he could rise to Ruth.

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"He was once a king, named Picus, and a pretty good sort of a king, too, only rather too proud of his purple robe, and his crown, and the golden chain about his neck; so he was forced to take the shape of a gaudy-feathered bird.

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A PEACOCK spreading its gorgeous tail mocked a Crane that passed by, ridiculing the ashen hue of its plumage and saying, "I am robed, like a king, in gold and purple and all the colors of the rainbow; while you have not a bit of color on your wings." "True," replied the Crane; "but I soar to the heights of heaven and lift up my voice to the stars, while you walk below, like a cock, among the birds of the dunghill."

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And never a flake That the vapour can make With the moon-tints of purple and pearl, Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl - Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and careless curl.

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I was called from these reflections by the sight of a freckled woman with yellow hair and a yellow gown, standing in the porch of the inn, under a dull red lamp swinging there, that looked much like an injured eye, and carrying on a brisk scolding with a man in a purple woollen shirt.

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At last he dreamt one night that he found a beautiful purple flower, and that in the middle of it lay a costly pearl; and he dreamt that he plucked the flower, and went with it in his hand into the castle, and that everything he touched with it was disenchanted, and that there he found his Jorinda again.

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The common purple, on a low and very thorny bush; a yellow kind, of an excellent flavor, growing on a stock free from thorns; and a deep purple, of the size and taste of our winter grape, with a thorny stalk.

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(with that peculiar expression of polite weariness which plainly says, "If it were not my duty I would not talk to you for a moment"), was listening to an old Russian general with decorations, who stood very erect, almost on tiptoe, with a soldier's obsequious expression on his purple face, reporting something.

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