gawfs

Noun

gawf (plural gawfs)

1. (London, obsolete, slang) A cheap and low-quality apple that has been polished to deceptively appear of better quality.
   • A cheap red-skinned fruit, known to costermongers as "gawfs," is rubbed hard, to look bright and feel soft, and is mixed with apples of a superior description. "Gawfs are sweet and sour at once," I was told, "and fit for nothing but mixing."1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, Of the Tricks of Costermongers, page 61