Definition of "apple"
apple
noun
plural apples
A common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates.
Quotations
I have so often heard Mr. Woodhouse recommend a baked apple. I believe it is the only way that Mr. Woodhouse thinks the fruit thoroughly wholesome. We have apple dumplings, however, very often. Patty makes an excellent apple-dumpling.
1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, pages 184–185
Any fruit or vegetable, or any other thing produced by a plant such as a gall or cone, especially if produced by a tree and similar to the fruit of Malus domestica; also (with qualifying words) used to form the names of specific fruits such as custard apple, rose apple, thorn apple etc.
Quotations
This apple is called in high Dutch, Zyꝛbel: in low Dutch, Pijn appel: in Engliſh, Pine apple, Clogge, and Cone. […] The whole Cone or apple being boiled with freſh Horehound, ſaith Galen, and afterwards boyled againe with a little hony till the decoction be come to the thicknes of hony, maketh an excellent medicine for the clenſing of the chest and lungs.
1597, John Gerarde [i.e., John Gerard], “Of the Pine Tree”, in The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. […], London: […] Edm[und] Bollifant, for Bonham and Iohn Norton, book III, page 1174
The fruite or Apples of Palme-trees (eſpecially ſuch as grow in ſalt grounds neare the Sea ſides, as in Cyrene of Affrica, and Indea, and not in Egypt, Cyprus, Syria, Helvetia, and Aſsiria do fatten and feed Hogges.
1607, Edward Topsell, chapter IX, in The Historie of Fovre-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, page 666
It [Otaheite] is remarkable for producing great quantities of that delicious fruit we called apples, which are found in none of the others, except Eimeo.
1784, James Cook, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. […], volume II, London: […] W[illiam] and A. Strahan; for G[eorge] Nicol, […]; and T[homas] Cadell, […], book III (Transactions at Otaheite, and the Society Islands; and Prosecution of the Voyage to the Coast of North America), page 174
Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica, such as a globe, ball, or breast.
Quotations
Contrary to Henricus Martellus, Behaim included the tropics [on his globe...]. Evidently, there was no space for a Fourth Continent on Behaim's apple, although some recollection of the Catalan map seems to lie behind the shape of southern Africa.
2008, Harald Kleinschmidt, Ruling the Waves, Bibliotheca Humanistica & Refo
Quotations
The sweat of fear and exertion was streaming down his face and chest, and his breath came in short, tearing, hard-drawn gasps and gulps, while the apple in his throat leaped up and down ceaselessly […]
1898, Hugh Charles Clifford, Studies in Brown Humanity: Being Scrawls and Smudges in Sepia, White, and Yellow, page 99
If the Hound had not been moving, the knife might have cored the apple of his throat; instead it only grazed his ribs, and wound up quivering in the wall near the door. He laughed then, a laugh as cold and hollow as if it had come from the bottom of a deep well.
2020, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, page 959
(derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or redskinned person who acts or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.
Quotations
The presenter, close to tears, told the audience that she's really an apple—white on the inside and red on the outside—Native American.
1998, Opal J. Moore, “Git That Gal a Red Dress: A Conversation Between Female Faculty at a State School in Virginia”, in Daryl Cumber Dance, editor, Honey, Hush!: An Anthology of African American Women's Humor, W. W. Norton & Company, page 537
verb
third-person singular simple present apples, present participle appling, simple past and past participle appled
(obsolete) To form buds, bulbs, or fruit.
Quotations
You may now sow upon moderate hot-beds, a few of the small Salad feeds, such as White Mustard, Rape, Cresses, and Cabbage Lettuces, and you may also sow upon other hot-beds, not to be drawn until they are pretty large and well appled, Radishes and Turnips, observing to sow them very thin, that the plants may have room to swell and grow;
1767, James Justice, The British gardener's calendar, page 274
Other cultivators, however, advise "that the seed collected from a few turnips thus transplanted, should be preserved and sown in drills, in order to raise plants for see for the general crop, drawing out all such as are weak and improper, leaving only those that are strong and which take the lead; and that when these have appled or formed bulbs, to again take out such as do not appear good and perfect, as by this means turnip seed may be procured, not only of a more vigorous nature, but which is capable of vegetating with less moisture and which produces stronger and more hardy plants.
1807, The Complete Farmer