purple

Word family

Related topics: Colours

pur·ple1 /ˈpɜːpəl $ ˈpɜːr-/ S3 W3 noun [uncountableU]

CCa dark colour that is a mixture of red and blue 紫色

Examples from the Corpus

purple• There is a huge range of colours, from an almost black purple, through red, orange, yellow and white.• Later something else purple takes on an even deeper significance.• I read the few sentences printed in purple on the leaf of pale yellow paper.• One year after his discovery, the flamboyant Empress Eugenie decided that purple would be the colour for the season.• Amid all the purple, there was cardinal and gold, spilling from guts and pouring from hearts.• Her hair is wild black grass, diluted to purple across her brow.

purple2 S3 W3 adjectiveadj

1. having a dark colour that is a mixture of red and blue 紫色的

2 purple with rage/purple in the face etc HBHwith a face that is dark red, caused by anger 气得脸色发紫

His face turned purple with rage.

他气得脸色发紫。

Examples from the Corpus

turned purple• Her body turned purple and broke out in enormous blisters.• Daley turned purple and pounded his fist on the lecterns when he later denied the rumor.• It is said that Scheiner, on hearing this in a Rome bookshop, turned purple and shook violently.• Arthur McAlister turned purple from the neck up.• Further tests, this time using aniline as a base, produced a powder that turned purple in alcohol.

3 purple patch a time when you are very successful – used especially in news reports 处于顺境的日子〔尤用于新闻报道〕

Steve’s purple patch continued with a second victory on Tuesday.

史蒂夫继续一帆风顺，周二获得了第二次胜利。

Examples from the Corpus

purple patch• Ian and a friend bagged 90 cod in just two hours in one purple patch.• Were they a coincidence or are you going through a purple patch at the moment?• Talk of his absence coinciding with our recent purple patch can't have helped.• A 15-minute purple patch in which they scored 19 points a 22-14 win Durham City.• It is neither a purple patch nor is it coincidence.• There are very few purple patches whereas the outdoor game - tactically - can be slow.

4. purple prose/passage ALwriting that uses difficult or unusual words – used to show disapproval 辞藻堆砌的散文/过于雕饰的段落〔含贬义〕

Examples from the Corpus

purple prose/passage• In his maturity what he remembered of his style of speaking were purple passages and a rather caustic irony.• Lady Thatcher will be honing her purple prose for the debate in the Lords.• William Holden plays a hack scriptwriter down on his luck, and his purple prose gives the film its biting tone.

Examples from the Corpus

purple• Barney Orlansky was purple and gold from head to toe -- hat, shirt and high-top shoes in Lakers colors.• On the live Bishop the silver pectoral cross rose and fell on the purple cassock.• A tall black-haired woman in a purple robe opened it.• The air hostesses on the flight to Bangkok wear pink and purple sarongs with gold borders, western eye-makeup, smiles.• Their heads were the only two not covered with purple shrouds, Blackbourne said.• It was a shabby army-surplus shoulder-bag which some one had painstakingly embroidered with purple stars.• Above them, the sky is purple with twilight.

Origin purple

(900-1000) Latin purpura, from Greek porphyra type of shellfish from which purple coloring was obtained

pur·ple1 nounpurple2 adjectiveadj

Chinese

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