a. [f. L. violāce-us violet-colored, f. viola VIOLA1: see -ACEOUS.]

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  1.  Of a violet colour; purplish blue.

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1657.  Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 498. Incrassated by coction to make it more violaceous.

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1686.  Plot, Staffordsh., 175. [A transparent stone] of an Amethystine violaceous colour, and a genuin luster.

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1790.  Shaw, Nat. Misc., III. F 2. The Violaceous Partridge.

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1819.  Stephens, in Shaw, Gen. Zool., XI. I. 42. The inferior tail-coverts are whitish, with violaceous tinges towards the sides.

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1844.  Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), V. 17. The flowers differ in having the violaceous tint … mixed with the crimson in the texture of the flower.

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1876.  Duhring, Dis. Skin, 247. In color they possess a dull red or even violaceous hue.

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  b.  Qualifying names of colors.

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1790.  Shaw, Nat. Misc., II. F 2. Violaceous-blackish Partridge with a cast of green. Ibid. (1802), Gen. Zool., III. II. 521. Violaceous-brown Snake. Ibid., 549. Violaceous-green Snake.

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1828.  Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., I. 198. Violaceous black; sides of the wing and tail-feathers white.

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1854.  trans. Pereira’s Polarized Light (ed. 2), 268. The extraordinary violaceous blue tint which immediately precedes the yellowish red.

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  2.  Bot. Belonging to or resembling the order Violaceæ.

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  Hence Violaceously adv.

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1888.  Harper’s Mag., Aug., 336. The stricken flesh … changes color, spots violaceously.

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