Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A condition characterized by hemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes that result in the appearance of purplish spots or patches.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In medicine, an eruption of small purple spots and patches, caused by extravasation of blood in the skin; the purples.
  • noun [capitalized] A genus of gastropods, typical of the family Purpuridæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A disease characterized by livid spots on the skin from extravasated blood, with loss of muscular strength, pain in the limbs, and mental dejection; the purples.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A genus of marine gastropods, usually having a rough and thick shell. Some species yield a purple dye.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun medicine The appearance of red or purple discolorations on the skin that do not blanch when pressure is applied, caused by subdermal bleeding.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several blood diseases causing subcutaneous bleeding

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin, purple; see purple.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin purpura

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