Purple

any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
cloth or clothing of this hue, especially as formerly worn distinctively by persons of imperial, royal, or other high rank.
the rank or office of a cardinal.
the office of a bishop.
imperial, regal, or princely rank or position.
deep red; crimson.
any of several nymphalid butterflies, as Basilarchia astyanax (red-spotted purple) having blackish wings spotted with red, or Basilarchia arthemis (banded purple or white admiral) having brown wings banded with white.
of the color purple.
imperial, regal, or princely.
brilliant or showy.
full of exaggerated literary devices and effects; marked by excessively ornate rhetoric:
a purple passage in a novel.
profane or shocking, as language.
to make or become purple.
born in / to the purple, of royal or exalted birth:
Those born to the purple are destined to live in the public eye.
Contemporary Examples

Dutch Try to Save Santa’s Slave Nadette De Visser December 1, 2014
Hockney’s Impressionist Period Rachel Wolff November 25, 2009
Home on the Fourth of July: Two Marines, Two Purple Hearts John Kael Weston July 3, 2013
Demi Moore’s Poignant Fall Tracy Quan February 14, 2012
‘T-Rex’ Will Never Be Extinct Simon Doonan August 12, 2010

Historical Examples

A History of Mourning Richard Davey
Philothea Lydia Maria Child
Mohawks, Volume 3 of 3 Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The White Company Arthur Conan Doyle
Steve Yeager William MacLeod Raine

noun
any of various colours with a hue lying between red and blue and often highly saturated; a nonspectral colour
a dye or pigment producing such a colour
cloth of this colour, often used to symbolize royalty or nobility
the purple, high rank; nobility

the official robe of a cardinal
the rank, office, or authority of a cardinal as signified by this

the purple, bishops collectively
adjective
of the colour purple
(of writing) excessively elaborate or full of imagery: purple prose
noble or royal
n., adj.
v.