English

Alternative forms

• purflew
• purfyle (13th - 15th centuries)

Noun

purfle ‎(plural purfles)

1. An ornamental border on clothing, furniture or a violin; beading, stringing.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xxvij, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     the messager came for kyng Arthurs berd / For kyng Ryons had purfyled a mantel with kynges berdes / […] / wherfor he sente for his berd or els he wold entre in to his landes / […] / & neuer leue tyl he haue the hede and the berd / wel sayd Arthur thow hast said thy message / the whiche is the most vylaynous and lewdest message that euer man herd sente vnto a kynge / Also thow mayst see / my berd is ful yong yet to make a purfyl of hit

Verb

purfle ‎(third-person singular simple present purfles, present participle purfling, simple past and past participle purfled)

1. (transitive, archaic) To decorate (wood, cloth etc.) with a purfle or ornamental border; to border.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter xxvij, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     And this was his message gretynge wel kynge Arthur in this manere wyse sayenge / that kynge Ryons had discomfyte and ouercome xj kynges / […] / they gaf hym their berdys clene flayne […] / wher for the messager came for kyng Arthurs berd / For kyng Ryons had purfyled a mantel with kynges berdes / and there lacked one place of the mantel

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

     Purfled with gold of rich assay.

   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, vol. 1:

     It came to pass on a certain day, as he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there stood before him an honourable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk, broidered with gold and bordered with brocade; her walking shoes were also purfled with gold and her hair floated in long plaits.

   • 2003, Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito,

     Remembering the exchange now, Dickie smiled that winning southern-boy smile. Then he went glum again. He thumped the purfled sound board.

2. (heraldry, transitive) To ornament with a bordure of ermines, furs, etc. or with gold studs or mountings.

Translations

Related terms

• purfling
• purl