maples

Noun

maple (countable and uncountable, plural maples)

1. Any member of any species of genus Acer, characterized by (usually) palmate, five-lobed leaves and winged seeds, and often grown for syrup or wood
   • Russian maple
   1. (UK, countable) A small tree (Acer campestre), known as the common maple, field maple, or hedge maple, which has palmate leaves with five lobes and winged seeds, and is chiefly native to East Asia, Europe, North Africa, and North America.
      • The vvarlike Beech, the Aſh for nothing ill, / The fruitfull Oliue, and the Plataine round, / The caruer Holme, the Maple ſeeldom invvard ſound.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9, page 5
   2. (countable) Often preceded by a descriptive word: a tree of the genus Acer; especially the sugar maple (Acer saccharum) native to North America which has brightly colored autumn foliage and is the primary source of maple syrup.
2. (countable) Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word: a tree of a genus other than Acer which has an appearance or wood similar to an Acer tree.
   • Queensland maple
3. (uncountable) Wood of an Acer tree, valued for its attractive appearance and hardness; also, similar wood from a tree of a genus other than Acer; (countable) a particular type of such wood.
   • This table is made of maple and also has some fruitwood inlays.
4. (uncountable) The light-brown color of the wood of a maple tree (etymology 1, noun sense 3).

See all 14 meanings of maple