apple

Etymology

PIE word *h₂ébōl From Middle English appel, from Old English æppel (“apple, fruit in general, ball”), from Proto-West Germanic *applu, from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (“apple”) (compare Scots aipple, West Frisian apel, Dutch appel, German Apfel, Swedish äpple, Danish æble), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl, *h₂ébl̥ (“apple”) (compare Welsh afal, Irish úll, Lithuanian óbuolỹs, Russian я́блоко (jábloko), possibly Ancient Greek ἄμπελος (ámpelos, “vine”)).

noun

1. A common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates.
   I prayed pieres to pulle adown an apple. c. 1378, William Langland, Piers Plowman
   Close by and under cover, I watched the juicing process. Apples were washed, then tipped, stalks and all, into the crusher and reduced to pulp. 28 October 2013, John Vallins, “Apples of Concord”, in The Guardian
2. 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.
   Venemous apples wherwith they poyson theyr arrows. 1585, Richard Eden (translating a 1555 work by Peter Martyr), Decades of the New World, v
   In Persia there grows a deadly tree, whose Apples are Poison, and present death. 1658, trans. Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick, I.16
   The fly injects her juices into the oak-leaf, to raise an apple for hatching her young. 1765, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued, page 337
   It is generally thought, that the curled topped potatoe proceeds from a neglect of raising fresh sorts from the apple or [potato-]seed. 1800, John Tuke, General View of the Agriculture of the North Riding of Yorkshire, page 150
   Hippomane mancinella. (Manchineel-tree.) Dr. Peysonnel relates that a soldier, who was a slave with the Turks, eat some of the apples of this tree, and was soon seized with a swelling and pain of the abdomen. 1825, Theodric Romeyn Beck, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence, 2nd edition, page 565
   One kind of apple or gall, inhabited only by one grub, is hard and woody on the outside, resembling a little wooden ball, of a yellowish color, but internally it is of a soft, spongy texture. 1833, Charles Williams, The Vegetable World, page 179
   The cross-bill will have seeds from the apple, or cone of the fir—the green-finch, seeds from the uplands, or door of barn, or rick-yard. 1853, Mrs. S. F. Cowper, Country Rambles in England, Or, Journal of a Naturalist, page 172
   The "apple" or gall usually forms a somewhat kidney-shaped excrescence, attached by a small base on the concave side, and varying in size from a half an inch to an inch and a half in length. 1889, Report of the Secretary of Agriculture, United States. Department of Agriculture, page 376
3. Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica, such as a globe, ball, or breast.
   1. (baseball, slang, obsolete) The ball in baseball.
   2. (informal) When smiling, the round, fleshy part of the cheeks between the eyes and the corners of the mouth.
   3. The Adam's apple.
      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
      Elsie went away with her parents to Belgium and the convent-school on the twelfth, and as they left The Firs in the battered station cab surrounded by boxes and trunks, Willie could not speak. The apple in his throat rose and remained there […] 1922, Henry Williamson, Dandelion Days, page 113
      The apple in his neck was hitting against his collar every time he drew breath and he tore at his collar nervously. 1999, Liam O'Flaherty, The Collected Stories, Wolfhound Press (IE)
      The apple in his neck bobbles as he gulps. “You've got to be kidding.” “No, I'm not. Your inheritance amounts to maybe three hundred thousand dollars." 2005, Sandra Benitez, Night of the Radishes, Hyperion
      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
4. (Christianity) The fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, eaten by Adam and Eve according to post-Biblical Christian tradition; the forbidden fruit.
   Sharon you've got a husband And a family and a farm I've got the apple of temptation And a diamond snake around my arm 1976, Joni Mitchell, Song for Sharon
   Woman ate the apple, and discovered sex, and lost all shame, and lift up her fig—leaf, and she must suffer the pains of hell. Monthly. 1985, Barry Reckord, The White Witch
5. A tree of the genus Malus, especially one cultivated for its edible fruit; the apple tree.
   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, John Weathers, Commercial Gardening, page 38
   This allows a weak plant to benefit from the strong roots of another, or a vigorous tree (such as an apple) to be kept small by growing on 'dwarfing rootstock'. 2000, P. A. Thomas, Trees: Their Natural History, page 227
   Used to be apple orchards, used to be the river and irrigation ditches that watered the apples, used to be mining towns. 2009, Sid Gardner, The Faults of the Owens Valley, page 34
   Other fruit trees, like apples, need well-drained soil. 2012, Terri Reid, The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid, page 77
6. The wood of the apple tree.
7. (in the plural, Cockney rhyming slang) Short for apples and pears (“stairs”).
8. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or red-skinned person who acts and/or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.
   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
   My ancestors five generations removed were "apples" who were "White" on the inside and "Red" on the outside. 2012-11-12, Joel Spring, The Cultural Transformation of A Native American Family and Its Tribe 1763-1995: A Basket of Apples, Routledge, ch. 9
9. (ice hockey, slang) An assist.
10. (slang) A CB radio enthusiast.
    Because of overcrowding, many a CB enthusiast (called an "apple") is strapping an illegal linear amplifier ("boots") on to his transceiver ("ears") […] 1977, New Scientist, volume 74, page 764

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become apple-like.
   One might say they have to be appled-up; varieties are selected for marketing which have the most apple-like qualities. 1992, Marilyn Strathern, Reproducing the Future
   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. 2004, Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram: A Novel
   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, Crossover: Krisalys Chronicles of Feyree, page 35
   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, The Barbary Dogs, page 57
2. (obsolete) To form buds, bulbs, or fruit.
   Either they floure, or they apple or els be ready to bring forth fruit. 1601, Philemon Holland, transl., Pliny, published 1634, II, page 98
   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
   The cabbage turnep is of two kinds; one apples above ground, and the other in it. 1796, Charles Marshall, Gardening, published 1800, page 245
   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