Word.ws English Dictionary

purfles

purfles is the plural of purfle.

Meaning of purfle

Noun

purfle (plural purfles)

  1. An ornamental border on clothing, furniture or a violin; beading, stringing.
    • 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...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I
  2. An ornamental border, edge, or line of a different tincture or material.
    • Adumbration (or Transparency) is a clear Exemption of the Substance of the Charge, so that there remaineth only the outward Strokes or Purfle of a Thing;1726, John Guillim, The banner display'd: or, An abridgment of Guillim [in his Display of heraldrie] by S. Kent, page 43

See all 4 meanings of purfle

Questions about purfles

What is purfles the plural of?
Purfles is the plural of purfle.

Words near purfles in the dictionary

  1. purfile
  2. purfiles
  3. purfle
  4. purfled
  5. Purfleet
  6. purfles
  7. purfling
  8. purflings
  9. purfly
  10. purga
  11. purgament

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purfles (page history and authors); purfle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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