empurpledadj.
/ɪmˈpəːpld/, /ɛmˈpəːpld/, U.S. /ᵻmˈpərp(ə)ld/, /ɛmˈpərp(ə)ld/ Chiefly poetic and literary.
1. That has been made purple (in any of the shades denoted or formerly denoted by this term: cf. purple adj. 2a); that has become purple; reddened.
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the world > matter > colour > named colours > red or redness > making or becoming red > [adjective] > made red
rubified?1526
reddened1552
empurpled1600
crimsoneda1641
ruddied1793
incarnadined1821
carnationed1823
the world > matter > colour > named colours > purple or purpleness > turning purple > [adjective] > made purple
purpureda1382
purpledc1450
empurpled1708
1600 E. Fairfax tr. T. Tasso Godfrey of Bulloigne xx. cxxix. 389 So she reuiues, and cheekes empurpled shewes.
1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 18 Down rain th' impurpl'd Balls, ambrosial Fruit.
1790 A. Wilson Poems 25 Bleaters, nibbling o'er th' empurpl'd plain.
1824 T. B. Macaulay Ivry in Knight's Q. Mag. 2 34 We thought of Seine's empurpled flood.
1881 R. L. Stevenson Ordered South in Macmillan's Mag. May 70/2 Of the empurpled hills standing up, solemn and sharp, out of the green-gold air of the east at evening.
1931 A. Bell Silver Ley (1942) xii. 144 Mr Colville applied brandy to his empurpled lips. This revived him.
1958 E. Birney Turvey vi. 70 He trained his little glassy headlamps on the empurpled paymaster.
2009 N. Cave Death Bunny Munro (2010) v. 40 His brain keeps bringing forth images of the day's horror—the empurpled face of his wife, the imagined death's head of his father.
2. Clothed in or covered with purple. Also figurative.Frequently with allusion to purple as the colour worn by rulers; cf. purple adj. 1.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > wearing clothing > [adjective] > wearing specific coloured clothing
whiteOE
blackc1300
reda1325
yellowa1350
purpureda1382
saffron-mantled1558
saffron robed1558
blue1600
scarleta1616
candidate1616
black-robed1673
swart1688
empurpled1766
blue-clad1767
black-clothed1800
sabled1804
blue-bloused1837
porporate1868
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > textile fabric > textile fabric of specific colour > [adjective] > covered with
empurpled1766
1766 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 137/2 From peasants to empurpled kings.
1860 T. Martin tr. Horace Odes 55 Barbaric monarchs' mothers, and empurpled tyrants fear.
1878 in G. P. Lathrop Masque of Poets 30 The empurpled ease Of her Greek couch.
1925 Theatre Arts Monthly May 304 Is the dramatist to be reduced to a scribe-in-waiting for the empurpled regisseur?
1983 M. S. Power Hunt For Autumn Clowns 15 What right had this empurpled figure of some dignity, while he himself had spent eternities on his knees..from what conceivable standpoint of justice..did the Bishop imagine he could judge?
2009 New Yorker 19 Oct. 17/1 Reyle poshes up motifs of minimalism and Arte Povera in chrome-plated sculpture and such lapidary japes as silvered hay bales and silvered, gilded, or empurpled junk assemblages.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1600