purple

plural purples

1. countableuncountableA colour between red and blue; violet, though often closer to magenta.

   Arraying with reflected Purple and Gold / The Clouds that on his Weſtern Throne attend.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 596–597

   Synonyms: blue-red

2. countableuncountablecolour theoryAny non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
3. countableuncountableCloth, or a garment, dyed a purple colour; especially, a purple robe, worn as an emblem of rank or authority; specifically, the purple robe or mantle worn by Ancient Roman emperors as the emblem of imperial dignity.

   to put on the imperial purple

   1 more example

   Thy head as Carmelus: and the heares of thy head as a kings purple tyed to cundite pipes.

   1610, The Second Tome of the Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Canticle of Canticles 7:5, page 341

4. broadlycountableuncountableImperial power.

   1776-1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire He was born in the purple.

   2 more examples

   When we picture to ourselves his [Napoleon’s] dawning military genius at Toulon—his daring and decided politics in the storms of the Revolution—his Cæsarian ambition in assuming the purple—[…]

   1829 March, “Napoleon a Sainte Helene. Opinion d’un Medecin sur la Maladie de l’Empereur Napoleon, et sur la Cause de sa Mort; offerte a son Fils, au Jour de sa Majorite. Par S. Hereau, […]”, in James Johnson, editor, The Medico-Chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, volume X, number XX, London: […] S. Highley, […], page 434

   The immediate successors of Augustus indulged in appalling cruelties towards senators and towards possible competitors for the purple.

   1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.29

5. countableuncountableAny of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk.
6. countableuncountableThe purple haze cultivar of cannabis in the kush family, either pure or mixed with others, or by extension any variety of smoked marijuana.

   "Sure, some purple Owlsley."

   2005, Tipi Paul, Wanna Smoke?: The Adventures of a Storyteller, page 14

   2 more examples

   “Purple smoke is no joke. Especially when it is real purple. The smell, taste, and high is easily one of the best in the world. One bowl of some purple Kush, and I'm done for a couple of hours.

   2010, Mark Arax, West of the West, page 221

   She preferred to smoke some good purple, but getting high wasn't an option.

   2011, Danielle Santiago, Allure of the Game, page 148

7. countableuncountablemedicinePurpura.
8. countableuncountableEarcockle, a disease of wheat.
9. countableuncountableAny of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis).

   the banded purple

10. countableuncountableA cardinalate.
11. USabbreviationcountableellipsisslanguncountableEllipsis of purple drank.

    Fishtailing out the parking lot leaving Magic / Sipping on the purple and the yellow, drinking magic

    2012, “Magic”, in Pluto, performed by Future ft. T.I.

12. UKcountableslanguncountableSynonym of snakebite and black.

    Synonyms: snakebite and black

13. countableuncountableA purple dye or pigment.
14. countableuncountableA pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of purple pigment.
15. countableuncountableSomething, or a part of a thing, which is purple.

comparative purpler · comparative more purple · superlative purplest · superlative most purple

1. Of a purple hue.

   So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 40

   Synonyms: purpureal

2. USgovernmentNot predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.

   purple city

   4 more examples

   purple state

   In the end, Nevada remained the quintessential purple state. On the maps that television used to illustrate political trends, Republican states were red and Democratic blue. Nevada blended the colors. It had a bright blue core in the heart of Las Vegas, surrounded by a purple suburban belt. Most of the rest of the state was bright red, especially in the rural counties.

   2010, Hal K. Rothman, The Making of Modern Nevada, University of Nevada Press, →ISBN, page 162

   As Mr. Friedlander conceived it, Reason was neither strictly right-wing libertarian nor strictly left — in modern parlance, neither red nor blue but a purple amalgam of the two.

   2011 May 7, Margalit Fox, “Lanny Friedlander, Founder of Reason Magazine, Dies at 63”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2021

   Political colorists can be promiscuous in calling states purple, but my state is true to that hue. I speak of North Carolina, and I have receipts: While our junior senator, Ted Budd, is a Republican who won election to a first term in 2022 by about three percentage points, our governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat who won election to a second term in 2020 by more than four.

   2023 May 4, Frank Bruni, “Republicans Are Running Wild in My State”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2023

3. BelgiumNetherlandsMixed between social democrats and liberals.
4. Imperial; regal.

   Grovel on the earth: aye, hide / In the dust thy purple pride!

   1818 October, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818”, in Rosalind and Helen, a Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […], published 1819, →OCLC, page 82

5. Blood-red; bloody.

   O may ſuch purple teares be alway ſhed

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 171, column 2

   1 more example

   Wars, horrid Wars I view; a field of Blood; / And Tyber rolling with a Purple Flood.

   1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 366, lines 133–134

6. literatureOf language, extravagantly ornate, like purple prose.

   Near-synonyms: flowery, overwrought

   1 more example

   A writer who has made a career of churning out thick novels may be expected to write too quickly to notice that patches of her writing are unbearably purple.

   1979 August 4, Rob Schmieder, “Anything a Man Does”, in Gay Community News, page 15

   Synonyms: flowery, overwrought

7. hobbiesOf a sector, lap, etc., completed in the fastest time so far in a given session.

present singular third person purples · participle present purpling · participle past purpled · past purpled

1. intransitiveTo turn purple in colour.

   The gang leader purpled and raised his gun.

   1999, David Edelstein, In Nomine: Corporeal Player's Guide, Steve Jackson Games,, →ISBN, page 8

   1 more example

   [T]he Capri cliffs, the tops of which were still pink against the purpling sky.

   1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 143

2. transitiveTo dye purple.

   Year after year unto her feet, / She lying on her couch alone, / Across the purpled coverlet, / The maiden's jet-black hair has grown, […]

   1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Sleeping Palace.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 152

3. transitiveTo clothe in purple.

1. rareA surname from Middle English.