apple

Noun (1)

apple (plural apples)

1. The fruit of the tree Malus domestica, chiefly with a green, red, or yellow skin, cultivated in temperate climates for cidermaking, cooking, and eating.
   • All apples eaten ſoone after yͭ they be gathered, are cold, hard to digeſt, and do make ill and corrupted bloud, but being wel kept vntill yͤ next winter, or the year folowing, eatẽ [eaten] after meales, they are right holeſome, & doe confyrme the ſtomacke, & make good digeſtion, ſpecially if they...153[9], Thomas Elyot, “Of Apples”, in The Castel of Helth […], London: […] Thomæ Bertheleti […], →OCLC, book II, folio 21, recto
   • [T]hey [i.e., writers] aſſigne and lay to India, the countrey of the Aſpagores, ſo plentifull in vines, laurels, and box, and generally of all ſorts of apple trees and other fruitfull trees that grovv vvithin Greece.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VI.] The Arij, and Other Nations Depending unto Them.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The...
2. Often with a qualifying word: any fruit or vegetable, or any other thing (such as a cone or gall) produced by a plant, especially if from a tree and similar to the fruit of Malus domestica (noun sense 1.1).
   • custard apple rose apple thorn apple
   • The apples wherewith the Indian Canibales inueneme theyr arrowes, growe on certeyne trees couered with many braunches and leaues beinge very greene and growyng thicke. They are laden with abundaunce of theſe euyll frutes, […]1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés], “[The Historie of the Weste Indies]. Of Venemous Apples wherwith They Poyson Theyr Arrowes.”, in Peter Martyr of...
3. Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica (noun sense 1.1) in shape (such as a ball, breast, or globe) or colour.
   • [H]old a round ball or hollovv apple of glaſſe full of vvater againſt the Sunne, it vvill be ſo hot, that it is ready to burne any cloth that it toucheth.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVI.] The First Invention of Glasse, and the Manner of Making It. Of a Kind of Glasse, Called Obsidianum. Also of Sundrie Kinds of...
   • [S]hrugging up her Shoulders, to ſhevv the tempting Apples of her vvhite Breaſts, ſhe ſuddainly lets them ſink again, to hide them, bluſhing, as if this had been done by chance, […]1705, J. S., “The Ways and Artifices of a Town-jilt, &c.”, in City and Country Recreation: Or, Wit and Merriment Rightly Calculated, for the Pleasure and Advantage of Either Sex. […], London: […] W....
4. (informal) The round, fleshy part of a cheek between the eye and the corner of the mouth when a person is smiling.
5. The surface of revolution of a circular arc of an angle greater than 180° rotated about the straight line passing through the arc's two endpoints.
6. In full apple bowl: a round bowl of a tobacco pipe; also, a tobacco pipe with such a bowl.
7. (obsolete, slang) In full old apple: a baseball.
   • Hey Dad! What do you say we toss the old apple around, huh? Sound like fun?1990 February 25, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon, “The Telltale Head”, in The Simpsons, season 1, episode 8
8. According to postbiblical Christian tradition, the fruit of the tree of knowledge which was eaten by Adam and Eve despite God commanding them not to do so; the forbidden fruit.
   • Him [man] by fraud I [Satan] have ſeduc'd / From his Creator, and the more to increaſe / Your vvonder, vvith an Apple; […]1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature...
   • I read and re-read her letter, and some softened feelings stole into my heart, and dared to whisper paradisiacal dreams of love and joy; but the apple was already eaten, and the angel's arm bared to drive me from all hope.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding...
9. (obsolete) Synonym of pome (“a type of fruit in which the often edible flesh arises from the swollen base of the flower and not from the carpels”).

   Synonyms:

   pome

10. (Internet, humorous) An imaginary diminutive unit of height.
    • He's only three apples tall
11. A tree of the genus Malus; especially Malus domestica which is cultivated for its edible fruit; the apple tree.
    • Trees that beare Maſt, and Nuts, are commonly more laſting, than thoſe that beare Fruits; Eſpecially the Moiſter Fruits: As Oakes, Beeches, Cheſ-nuts, VVall-nuts, Almonds, Pine-Trees, &c. laſt longer than Apples, Peares, Plums, &c.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VI. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching the Lasting of Herbs and Trees.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London...
    • If the grafted portion of an Apple or other tree were examined after one hundred years, the old cut surfaces would still be present, for mature or ripened wood, being dead, never unites.1913, “The Science of Plant Growing”, in John Weathers, editor, Commercial Gardening […], volume I, London: The Gresham Publishing Company […], →OCLC, §4 (The Root and Its Work), page 38

    Synonyms:

    malus

12. Synonym of applewood (“the wood of the apple tree”).

    Synonyms:

    applewood

Verb

apple (third-person singular simple present apples, present participle appling, simple past and past participle appled)

1. (transitive) To make (something) appear like an apple (noun sense 1.1).
   • To choose responsibly, our active citizen must know what is being offered, much of this knowledge being filtered through appearance: things must look what they are supposed to be. Apples must look like applies. One might say they have to be appled-up; varieties are selected for marketing which have...1992, Marilyn Strathern, “Enterprising Kinship: Consumer Choice and the New Reproductive Technologies”, in Reproducing the Future: Essays on Anthropology, Kinship and the New Reproductive...
   • A large smile appled his full cheeks as the four sprytes eagerly served themselves from the seeds and thinly sliced fruits.2007, Claudia D. Newcorn, chapter 4, in Crossover (Chronicles of Feyree; scroll 1), [United States]: Theogony Books, published 2021, →ISBN, page 35
2. (intransitive) To become like an apple.
   • He glanced at me, his cheeks appled in the impish grin I was learning to recognise as the clever under-side of his broad and gentle smile.2003, Gregory David Roberts, chapter 1, in Shantaram, London: Hachette Digital, published 2012, →ISBN, part 1
   • She smiled, and her cheeks appled up and her teeth were big and flat and her mouth was wide and spacious like an open invitation.2011, Cynthia Robinson, chapter 10, in The Barbary Dogs (A Thomas Dunne Book), New York, N.Y.: Minotaur Books, St. Martin’s Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 57
3. (UK, dialectal, intransitive, rare) To collect fir-cones.
4. (dialectal, intransitive, obsolete except UK) Of a flower bud or vegetable (especially a root vegetable): to grow into the shape of an apple.
   • As for Scolymus [possibly type of artichoke?], it differeth from the reſt of theſe Thiſtles herein, That the root, if it be ſodden, it is good to be eaten: beſides, it hath a ſtraunge nature, for all the ſort of them during the Summer throughout, never reſt and give over, but either they floure, or...1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXI.] Of Carduus, and Ixine: Of Tribulus and Anchusa.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The...
   • To Pome or Apple, is ſaid of the Heads of Artichokes vvhen they grovv round, and full ſhaped as an Apple. It is ſaid alſo of Lettuce, &c.[1693, John Evelyn, “The Dictionary. An Explication of the Terms of Gard’ning, in an Alphabetical Order. To Pome or Apple.”, in De La Quintinye [i.e., Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie], translated by...

Proper noun capitalized: Apple

IPA/ˈæp.əl/

Apple (countable and uncountable, plural Apples)

1. Nickname for New York City: a major city in New York, United States; more commonly in the form the Big Apple.
2. (countable, rare) A female given name from English.
3. (countable) A surname.

Noun (2) capitalized: Apple

IPA/ˈæp.əl/

Apple (plural Apples)

1. A computer produced by the company Apple Inc.
   • Arthur bought the Apple anyway. Over a few days he also acquired some astronomical software, plotted the movements of stars, drew rough little diagrams of how he seemed to remember the stars to have been […]1984, Douglas Adams, chapter 17, in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), page 93