Definition of "periwinkle" [per•i•win•kle]

• Any of several small, often edible marine snails, especially of the genus Littorina, having thick, cone-shaped, whorled shells. (noun)
• The shell of any of the periwinkles. (noun)
• Any of several shrubby, trailing, evergreen plants of the genus Vinca, especially V. minor, having glossy, dark green, opposite leaves and flowers with a blue, funnel-shaped corolla. Also called myrtle. (noun)
• Any of several erect herbs of the genus Catharanthus, especially C. roseus, having flowers with a rose-pink or white salverform corolla and a closed throat. (noun)
• A pale purplish blue. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "And the ones I tried on were brown; the model's are in periwinkle pinstripes!"
• "The Insufferable Know-It-All: Might have looked better in periwinkle."
• "The periwinkle is a kind of shrub; it grows at the foot of the oyster-tree, and twines round it as the ivy does the oak."