1864 W. J. Courthope 14 The green-leaf palace 'neath her sober wing Grows purple-dark.
1928 V. Woolf vi. 243 The wine-blue purple-dark hill.
1986 O. P. Adisa in S. Brown (1990) 3 He wanted to be purple-dark like the rest of them so his face wouldn't turn red like the colour of sorrel fruit whenever he got angry.