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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



154 words match “PURPLE”

PALLIUM n.
A band of white wool, worn on the shoulders, with four purple crosses worked on it; a pall.
PANSY n.
A plant of the genus Viola (V. tricolor) and its blossom, originally purple and yellow. Cultivated varieties have very large flowers of a great diversity of colors. Called also heart's-ease, love-in-idleness, and many other quaint names.
PARTRIDGE n.
iaceæ, having roundish evergreen leaves, and white fragrant flowers sometimes tinged with purple, growing in pairs with the ovaries united, and producing the berries which remain over winter; also, the plant itself. (b) The fruit of the creeping wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); also, the plant itself. -- Partridge…
PENTACRININ n.
A red and purple pigment found in certain crinoids of the genus Pentacrinus.
PERILLA n.
, of which one species (Perilla ocimoides, or P. Nankinensis) is often cultivated for its purple or variegated foliage.
PETECHIAE n.
Small crimson, purple, or livid spots, like flea-bites, due to extravasation of blood, which appear on the skin in malignant fevers, etc.
PETUNIA n.
r-shaped corollas. Two species are common in cultivation, Petunia violacera, with reddish purple flowers, and P. nyctaginiflora, with white flowers. There are also many hybrid forms with variegated corollas.
PHENICINE n.
A purple powder precipitated when a sulphuric solution of indigo is diluted with water.
PHLOX n.
A genus of American herbs, having showy red, white, or purple flowers. Phlox worm (Zoöl.), the larva of an American moth (Heliothis phloxiphaga). It is destructive to phloxes. -- Phlox subulata, the moss pink. See under Moss.
PHOTOCHEMICAL a.
chemical action of light, or produced by it; as, the photochemical changes of the visual purple of the retina.
PIGEONWING n.
(Tempering) A color, brown shaded with purple, coming between dark brown and light blue in the table of colors in drawing the temper of hardened steel.
PIMPERNEL n.
lis, of which one species (A. arvensis) has small flowers, usually scarlet, but sometimes purple, blue, or white, which speedily close at the approach of bad weather. Water pimpernel. (Bot.) See Brookweed.
PITTA n.
f the species are varied with three or more colors, such as blue, green, crimson, yellow, purple, and black. They are called also ground thrushes, and Old World ant thrushes; but they are not related to the true thrushes.
POKE n.
A large North American herb of the genus Phytolacca (P. decandra), bearing dark purple juicy berries; -- called also garget, pigeon berry, pocan, and pokeweed. The root and berries have emetic and purgative properties, and are used in medicine. The young shoots are sometimes eaten as a substitute for asparagus, and the…
POLY-MOUNTAIN n.
The Bartsia alpina, a low purple-flowered herb of Europe.
PORPHYRY n.
athic) through which crystals, as of feldspar or quartz, are disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles. Porphyry shell (Zoöl.), a handsome marine gastropod shell (Oliva porphyria), having a dark red or brown polished surface, marked with light spots, like porphyry.…
PORT n.
A dark red or purple astringent wine made in Portugal. It contains a large percentage of alcohol.
PRAETEXTA n.
A white robe with a purple border, worn by a Roman boy before he was entitled to wear the toga virilis, or until about the completion of his fourteenth year, and by girls until their marriage. It was also worn by magistrates and priests.
PROGNE n.
A genus of swallows including the purple martin. See Martin.
PRUNE n.
okery; as, French or Turkish prunes; California prunes. German prune (Bot.), a large dark purple plum, of oval shape, often one-sided. It is much used for preserving, either dried or in sirup. Prune tree. (Bot.) (a) A tree of the genus Prunus (P. domestica), which produces prunes. (b) The West Indian tree, Prunus occid…
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