purple passage (PUR-puhl PAS-ij) noun, also purple patch, purple prose 1. A brilliant passage in an otherwise dull and uninspiring work. 2. A piece of writing marked by ornate, florid style. [From Latin pannus purpureus (purple patch), a phrase used by poet Horace in his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) to suggest a patch of royal fabric on an ordinary cloth.] "Page after page is filled with drunken quarrels with his wife; with lies, infidelities, religious doubts, homosexual yearnings and, above all, with his daily, desperate search for a bottle. Interspersed among these dreary horrors are purple passages about his love for his children, his dog and his fine house." A Gin at Mid-Morning -- John Cheever: The Journals by John Cheever,
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