Lexic.us

Definition of Purple Heart

1. Noun. A United States military decoration awarded to any member of the armed forces who is wounded in action.

Definition of Purple Heart

1. Noun. (chiefly US military) A US military decoration awarded in the name of the President of the United States to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after 5 April 1917 with the U.S. military. ¹

2. Noun. The drug phenobarbitone when used for illicit purposes. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Lexicographical Neighbors of Purple Heart

Literary usage of Purple Heart

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Sketches of the animal and vegetable productions of America by Mary Roberts (1839)
"... the beautiful brown letter-wood, spotted like a leopard's skin, or varied with marks resembling hieroglyphics, or else the purple heart, so called from ..."

2. A Description of British Guiana, Geographical and Statistical: Exhibiting by Robert Hermann Schomburgk (1840)
"The Purple Heart is rather scarce on the coast- regions. It is a tree of the largest size, and its wood is used for furniture in consequence of the beauty ..."

3. A Practical Treatise on Dyeing and Calico-printing; Including the Latest by Edward Andrew Parnell, Robert Macfarlane (1860)
"Purple Heart.—At a recent meeting of the Manchester (England) Philosophical Society, Dr. F. Grace Calvert, the eminent chemist, read a paper on researches ..."

4. The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia: Commercial by Edward Balfour (1885)
"It has a purple heart- vood ; H is much used for building purposes, ... ItB wood is light-coloured, with a purple heart ; it is dose-grained, ..."

5. Wood: A Manual of the Natural History and Industrial Applications of the by George Simonds Boulger (1902)
"Much used for posts, piles, sleepers, etc. Purple-heart of Guiana ... Used for furniture, gun-carriages and works of construction. Purple-heart of Trinidad ..."

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