Definition of "purple" []

• Any of a group of colors with a hue between that of violet and red. (noun)
• Cloth of a color between violet and red, formerly worn as a symbol of royalty or high office. (noun)
• Imperial power; high rank: born to the purple. (noun)
• Roman Catholic Church The rank or office of a cardinal. (noun)
• Roman Catholic Church The rank or office of a bishop. (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.

• "[49]: The purple die is called in I Maccab.iv. 23, _purple of the sea, _ or _sea purple_; it being the blood or juice of a turbinated shell-fish, which the Jews call [Hebrew] _Chalson_; this they speak of as a shell-fish."
• "For when Alexander ordered the Greeks to furnish him with purple robes to wear at the sacrifices on his triumphal return from war against the barbarians, and his subjects contributed so much per head, Theocritus said, "Before I doubted, but now I am sure, that this is the _purple death_ Homer speaks of." ["
• "The word purple is derived from the Greek porphura, an octopus which yielded purple pigments from which purple dyes were originally manufactured."