THE PURPLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does the purple mean? 

• THE PURPLE (noun)
  The noun THE PURPLE has 2 senses:

1. (in ancient Rome) position of imperial status

2. (Roman Catholic Church) official dress of a cardinal; so named after the Tyrial purple color of the robes

  Familiarity information: THE PURPLE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THE PURPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(in ancient Rome) position of imperial status

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

purple; the purple

Context example:

he was born to the purple

Hypernyms ("the purple" is a kind of...):

nobility; noblesse (the state of being of noble birth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(Roman Catholic Church) official dress of a cardinal; so named after the Tyrial purple color of the robes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

purple; the purple

Hypernyms ("the purple" is a kind of...):

ecclesiastical attire; ecclesiastical robe (attire that is appropriate to wear in a church)

Domain category:

Church of Rome; Roman Catholic; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Church; Western Church (the Christian Church based in the Vatican and presided over by a pope and an episcopal hierarchy)

 Context examples 

“But there should be another one,” cried the man in the purple coat.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“And history tells of opportunities that came to the slaves who rose to the purple,” he answered grimly.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We were, as I have said, in the dining-room: the lustre, which had been lit for dinner, filled the room with a festal breadth of light; the large fire was all red and clear; the purple curtains hung rich and ample before the lofty window and loftier arch; everything was still, save the subdued chat of Adele (she dared not speak loud), and, filling up each pause, the beating of winter rain against the panes.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Just as Ruth's face, in a momentary jealousy had called before his eyes a forgotten moonlight gale, and as Professor Caldwell made him see again the Northeast Trade herding the white billows across the purple sea, so, from moment to moment, not disconcerting but rather identifying and classifying, new memory-visions rose before him, or spread under his eyelids, or were thrown upon the screen of his consciousness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Emma saw symptoms of it immediately in the expression of her face; and while paying her own compliments to Mrs. Bates, and appearing to attend to the good old lady's replies, she saw her with a sort of anxious parade of mystery fold up a letter which she had apparently been reading aloud to Miss Fairfax, and return it into the purple and gold reticule by her side, saying, with significant nods, We can finish this some other time, you know.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

“But history tells of slaves who rose to the purple,” I chided.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Yet summer lingered, fading and fainting among her hills, deepening the purple of her valleys, spinning a shroud of haze from waning powers and sated raptures, dying with the calm content of having lived and lived well.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They clung to the purple moors behind and around their dwelling—to the hollow vale into which the pebbly bridle-path leading from their gate descended, and which wound between fern-banks first, and then amongst a few of the wildest little pasture-fields that ever bordered a wilderness of heath, or gave sustenance to a flock of grey moorland sheep, with their little mossy- faced lambs:—they clung to this scene, I say, with a perfect enthusiasm of attachment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)