purple

Less common meanings

5. 5
   too fancy (writing)adjective

   Extravagantly ornate in style; overwritten, as in purple prose.

   Editors trimmed the manuscript's purple passages before publication.

   Her purple description of an ordinary sunset ran on for three pages.

   UsageBest known in purple prose; also purple passages. Calling writing purple is a criticism.

   Similarflorid, flowery, ornate, overwrought, flamboyant

   Oppositeplain, spare, understated, restrained

   Note

   A critic's word, applied to language, and best known from purple prose. The image goes back to Horace's Ars Poetica, which mocks showy passages as purple patches sewn on where they do not belong. It works predicatively as well: a 1979 reviewer found patches of a novelist's writing 'unbearably purple.' Flowery and overwrought are near neighbors. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The literary image behind 'purple prose' derives from Horace's Ars Poetica. en.wikipedia.org
   • A 1979 reviewer described patches of a novelist's writing as 'unbearably purple'. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   adjective

   Imperial or regal; associated with the rank of emperors and royalty.

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

   1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Lines Written among the Euganean Hills, October, 1818”

   Similarimperial, regal, royal, noble

   Oppositehumble, common, plebeian

   Note

   The adjective carries the robe's prestige onto whatever it describes: lineage, pride, birth. Shelley's 'hide / In the dust thy purple pride!' shows its natural register, which is elevated and often reproachful. It is the adjectival partner of the robes of rank, and like that sense it sounds historical or poetic rather than everyday. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • Shelley wrote 'hide / In the dust thy purple pride!' gutenberg.org
7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To become purple, or to make something purple by dyeing or covering it in purple.

   The hills purple in the evening light at this time of year.

   His face purpled with embarrassment when everyone turned to look.

   UsageUsed in descriptions such as his face purpled and the purpling sky. Turn purple is the everyday alternative.

   Note

   The intransitive verb is at its most vivid with faces and skies. A 1999 game book has 'The gang leader purpled and raised his gun,' where the color signals rage. James Workman's The Mad Emperor (1966) writes of 'the purpling sky' at dusk. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • The game book containing the quotation was first published in 1999. pdfcoffee.com
   • The book contains the exact quotation given. pdfcoffee.com
   • The gang leader's change of colour expresses anger. pdfcoffee.com
   • James Workman wrote The Mad Emperor. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   adjective

   Combining social democratic and liberal parties, as in a coalition government.

   The Netherlands experimented with purple cabinets through much of the 1990s.

   After the election, social democrats and liberals agreed to form a purple coalition.

   UsageUsually before coalition, cabinet or government: a purple coalition.

   Note

   The same color-mixing logic is applied to a different political map. In the Netherlands and Belgium, purple describes coalitions that join social democrats with liberals, so it usually modifies words like cabinet or coalition. Readers should not carry over the American red-blue sense, which concerns two parties' voters, not parties governing together. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The coalition label follows the mixing of social-democratic red and liberal blue. en.wikipedia.org
   • In the Netherlands and Belgium, purple describes governing coalitions joining social democrats and liberals. en.wikipedia.org
   • The American purple-state sense concerns Democratic and Republican voting strength rather than a governing coalition. en.wikipedia.org
9. 9
   adjectiveliterary

   Blood-red in color; stained or covered with blood.

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

   1697, Virgil, “The Sixth Book of the Æneis”

   O may ſuch purple teares be alway ſhed

   c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt,”

   Similarbloody, crimson, gory, bloodstained

   Note

   A poet's word for blood. In Henry VI, Part 3, Shakespeare's Richard of Gloucester wishes that 'such purple teares be alway shed,' meaning blood, not weeping. Dryden's Virgil (1697) sees 'Tyber rolling with a Purple Flood.' In modern writing the effect is deliberately archaic, so a purple field means a bloodied one only when the context is battle and the style is elevated. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 3, Richard of Gloucester says the quoted words; the purple tears are blood on his sword after stabbing Henry. gutenberg.org
   • Dryden's English translation of Virgil was first published in 1697. openbook.lib.utah.edu
   • The quoted wording occurs in Dryden's translation, where the Sibyl foretells warfare and a blood-filled Tiber. en.wikisource.org
10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To dress or cover in purple garments.
11. 11
    nounslangUSabbreviationellipsis

    Short form of purple drank: a drink of prescription cough syrup containing codeine, mixed with soda and often hard candy.

    He mixed purple in a foam cup the way the old songs described.

    The song talks about sipping purple from a foam cup all night.

    Note

    Clipped from purple drank, the slang name for a cough-syrup drug linked to Southern US hip-hop. The color word alone now carries the meaning. It can take the definite article, as in Future's song 'Magic.' Context separates it from the cannabis sense, since this one is drunk, not smoked. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Purple is shortened from purple drank. en.wiktionary.org
    • Purple drank is a cough-syrup drug associated with Southern US hip-hop. en.wikipedia.org
    • “Magic” was first released in 2011; the remix featuring T.I. was released in 2012. en.wikipedia.org
    • “Magic” supplies an example of purple used with the definite article. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    beer cocktailnounslangUKuncountable

    A mixed drink of lager, cider, and blackcurrant cordial, known for its dark purple color.

    The bartender pulled them two pints of purple.

    A round of purple left the whole table giggling.

    UsageOrdered like a beer: a purple, two pints of purple.

    Note

    A British pub nickname for snakebite and black, with the color standing in for the full name of the drink. It is slang and belongs to ordering at the bar. Despite the shared color, it has nothing to do with the American cough-syrup drink, so the same word can mean very different things on either side of the Atlantic. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The British drink called purple is snakebite and black, named for its color. thetab.com
    • The American cough-syrup drink is a different preparation from the British lager-and-cider drink. en.wikipedia.org
13. 13
    noun

    A kush-family cannabis cultivar with violet coloring, or by extension any smoked marijuana.
14. 14
    adjective

    Of a lap or sector, completed in the fastest time recorded so far in the current session.
15. 15
    noun

    A butterfly of the genus Limenitis, such as the red-spotted purple, usually marked with purple or blue iridescence.
16. 16
    nounarchaic

    The medical condition purpura, in which bleeding under the skin produces purplish spots or patches.
17. 17
    noun

    Any of various sea snails, such as murex or the dog whelk, that give a purple dye like Tyrian purple.
18. 18
    verbcolloquialUS

    Of young people, especially at Christian summer camps, to mingle or flirt with the opposite sex.
19. 19
    noun

    A disease of wheat, also known as earcockle, that deforms the grain.