purple

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A 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.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Any non-spectral colour on the line of purples on a colour chromaticity diagram or a colour wheel between violet and red.
3. (countable, uncountable)Cloth, 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”

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

4. (broadly, countable, uncountable)Imperial power.

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

   “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—[…]”

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

5. (countable, uncountable)Any of various species of mollusks from which Tyrian purple dye was obtained, especially the common dog whelk.
6. (countable, uncountable)The 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."”

   ““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.”

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

7. (countable, uncountable)Purpura.
8. (countable, uncountable)Earcockle, a disease of wheat.
9. (countable, uncountable)Any of the species of large butterflies, usually marked with purple or blue, of the genus Basilarchia (formerly Limenitis).

   “the banded purple”

10. (countable, uncountable)A cardinalate.
11. (US, abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, slang, uncountable)Ellipsis of purple drank.

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

12. (UK, countable, slang, uncountable)Synonym of snakebite and black.

adj

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.”

2. (US)Not predominantly red or blue, but having a mixture of Democrat and Republican support.

   “purple state”

   “purple city”

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

3. (Belgium, Netherlands)Mixed between social democrats and liberals.
4. Imperial; regal.

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

5. Blood-red; bloody.

   “O may ſuch purple teares be alway ſhed”

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

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

   “Near-synonyms: flowery, overwrought”

   “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.”

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

verb

1. (intransitive)To turn purple in colour.

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

   “The gang leader purpled and raised his gun.”

2. (transitive)To 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, […]”

3. (transitive)To clothe in purple.

name

1. (rare)A surname from Middle English.