Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words

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.

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

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.

2. imperial, regal, or princely.

4. full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric:

   a purple passage in a novel.

5. profane or shocking, as language.

6. relating to or noting political or ideological diversity:

   purple politics; ideologically purple areas of the country.

1. to make or become purple.

noun

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

5. 1. the official robe of a cardinal

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

6. the purple

adjective

2. (of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery

   purple prose