the.com/purple prose

means Writing that's overdone and ornate — stuffed with excessive adjectives, metaphors, and flourishes that draw attention to themselves instead of serving the story.

from Traces back to the Roman poet Horace, who in his 'Ars Poetica' criticized writers for stitching 'purple patches' (purpureus pannus) — flashy, richly dyed scraps of fabric sewn onto otherwise plain cloth. Purple dye was rare and costly in antiquity, reserved for emperors and nobility, so a 'purple patch' meant a showy, self-conscious burst of fine writing that clashed with the plainer prose around it. The phrase stuck, and 'purple prose' became the label for writing that's all gaudy fabric and no garment.