apple

An apple (sense 1.1).

An apple (sense 2) or apple tree in blossom.

Frans Floris, The Fall of Man (c. 1560),^{[n 1]} which depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with apples (sense 1.4) or forbidden fruit.

The noun is derived from Middle English appel (“Malus domestica fruit or tree, apple; any type of fruit, nut, or tuber; tree bearing fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; (Christianity) forbidden fruit in Eden”),^[1] from Old English æppel (“apple; any type of fruit; (figurative) ball, sphere; eyeball”), from Proto-West Germanic *applu (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Germanic *aplaz (“apple; any type of fruit”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ébōl, *h₂ébl̥ (“apple”).^[2]

As regards sense 1.4 (“forbidden fruit”), the type of fruit eaten by Adam and Eve is not identified in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It may have come to be identified with the apple because of the similarity between Latin mālum (“apple”) and malum (“evil; misery, torment; wrongdoing”).^[2]

The verb is derived from the noun.^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæpl̩/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: ăpʹ(ə)l, IPA^(key): /ˈæp(ə)l/, [ˈæpɫ̩]

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æpəl
• Hyphenation: ap‧ple

apple (plural apples)

1. A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.

   Hypernyms: fruit, hand fruit, pome

   2. The fruit of the tree Malus domestica, chiefly with a green, red, or yellow skin, cultivated in temperate climates for cidermaking, cooking, and eating. [from 9th c.]
      • 153[9], Thomas Elyot, “Of Apples”, in The Castel of Helth […], London: […] Thomæ Bertheleti […], →OCLC, book II, folio 21, recto:

        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 be roſted or baked, […]

      • 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 Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 128:

        [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.

      • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC:

        VVhat of my droſs thou findeſt there, be bold To throvv avvay, but yet preserve the gold; VVhat if my gold be vvrapped up in ore?—None throvvs avvay the apple for the core.

      • 1712 October 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “TUESDAY, October 14, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 509; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

        Instead of the Assembly of honourable Merchants, substantial Tradesmen, and knowing Masters of Ships; the Mumpers, the Halt, the Blind, and the Lame; your Venders of Trash, Apples, Plumbs; your Raggamuffins, Rakeshames, and Wenches, have justled the greater Number of the former out of that Place.

        The spelling has been modernized.

      • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, pages 184–185:

        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.

      • 2013 October 28, John Vallins, “Apples of Concord”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-09-23:

        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.

   3. 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 (sense 1.1). [from 9th c.]

      custard apple    rose apple    thorn apple

      • 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 Angleria [i.e., Peter Martyr d’Anghiera], translated by Rycharde Eden [i.e., Richard Eden], The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India, […], London: […] [Rycharde Jug for] Guilhelmi Powell, →OCLC, decade, folio 198, verso:

        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, […]

      • 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, →OCLC, book III, page 1174:

        This apple is called in high Dutch, Zyꝛbel [Zyrbel]: in low Dutch, Pijn appel: in Engliſh, Pine apple, Clogge, and Cone. […] The vvhole Cone or apple being boiled vvith freſh Horehound, ſaith Galen, and aftervvards boyled againe vvith 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.

      • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XI.] The Trees of the Iland Tyles within the Persian Sea. Moreover, of Those Trees that Beare Woll or Cotton..”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 364:

        As touching Arabia, vvhich lyeth neere and bordereth upon theſe Iſlands, the ſpices and odoriferous fruits that be therein, are to be treated of vvith diſtinction: for their merchandiſe doth conſiſt of roots, braunches, barke, juice or liquor, gums and roſins, vvood, tvvigs, flovvers, leaves, and apple.

      • 1607, Edward Topsell, chapter IX, in The Historie of Fovre-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 666:

        The fruite or Apples of Palme-trees (eſpecially ſuch as grovv 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.

      • 1658, John Baptista Porta [i.e., Giambattista della Porta], “That the Countries and Places where Simples Grow, are Chiefly to be Considered”, in [anonymous], transl., Natural Magick […] Wherein are Set Forth All the Riches and Delights of the Natural Sciences, London: […] John Wright, […], published 1669, →OCLC, 1st book (Wherein are Searched Out the Causes of Things which Produce Wonderful Effects), page 21:

        In Perſia there grovvs a deadly tree, vvhoſe apples are poiſon, and preſent death: therefore there it is uſed for a puniſhment: but being brought over to the Kings into Egypt, they become vvholeſome apples to eat, and loſe their harmfulneſſe, as Columella vvrites.

      • 1768, Edward Search [pseudonym; Abraham Tucker], “External Nature”, in The Light of Nature Pursued, volume II, part I (Theology), London: […] T. Jones, […]; and sold by T[homas] Payne, […], →OCLC, paragraph 13, page 302:

        [T]he fly injects her juices into the oak leaf to raiſe an apple for hatching her young and therein ſupplies us vvith ink for our correſpondence and improvement.

      • 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, […], →OCLC, book III (Transactions at Otaheite, and the Society Islands; and Prosecution of the Voyage to the Coast of North America), page 174:

        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.

      • 1825, Theodric Romeyn Beck, William Dunlop, Elements of Medical Jurisprudence. […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Anderson, […], →OCLC, page 565:

        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.

      • 1829, [John Leonard Knapp], The Journal of a Naturalist, 2nd edition, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 250–251:

        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 rickyard.

      • 1833, Charles Williams, “The Aged Tree”, in The Vegetable World, London: Frederick Westley and A[braham] H[opkins] Davis, […], →OCLC, page 192:

        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.

      • 1889, B. D. Halstead, “Report of the Section of Vegetable Pathology [9.—Apple Rusts.]”, in Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture. 1888, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 376:

        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.

   4. Something which resembles the fruit of Malus domestica (sense 1.1) in shape (such as a ball, breast, or globe) or colour.
      • 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. O. for P. Parker, […], →OCLC, 2nd part, page 104:

        [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, […]

      • 1761, “Of the Order of the Procession of the Electoral Princes, and of Those who are to Carry the Honorary Ensigns”, in The Modern Part of an Universal History, from the Earliest Account of Time. […], volume XXX, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson, […], →OCLC, page 508:

        [T]he ſaid elector of Saxony ſhall have on his right the count-palatine of the Rhine, vvho ſhall carry the globe or imperial apple; and, on his left, the marquis of Brandenburg carrying the ſcepter.

      • 1807, Sharon Turner, “The Political State of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in the Eighth Century”, in The History of the Anglo-Saxons. […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, […], →OCLC, book III, footnote 20, page 200, column 2:

        The arms of Upland were a golden apple, or globe, surrounded with a belt, in allusion to the monarchy.

      • 1956, Marion Hargrove, The Girl He Left Behind: Or, All Quiet in the Third Platoon, New York, N.Y.: Viking Books, →OCLC, page 129:

        Andy picked up his two grenades and followed the line into the pits. The apples felt strangely heavy in his hands, and when he looked at them one was as ugly and lethal-looking as the other.

      • 1975, C[harles] W[illiam] Smith, chapter IX, in Country Music, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →ISBN, page 256:

        A peasant blouse that showed the tops of those lovely little apples.

      • 2008, Harald Kleinschmidt, Ruling the Waves: Emperor Maximilian I, the Search for Islands and the Transformation of the European World Picture c. 1500 (Bibliotheca Humanistica & Reformatorica; 63), ’t Goy, Houten, Utrecht: Hes & de Graaf Publishers, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 79:

        Contrary to Henricus Martellus [Germanus], [Martin] 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.

      1. Short for Adam's apple (“the lump in the throat, usually more noticeable in men than in women; the laryngeal prominence”).
         • 1898, Hugh Charles Clifford, Studies in Brown Humanity: Being Scrawls and Smudges in Sepia, White, and Yellow, page 99:

           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 […]

         • 1922, Henry Williamson, Dandelion Days, page 113:

           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  […]

         • 1999, Liam O'Flaherty, The Collected Stories, Wolfhound Press (IE) (→ISBN)

           The apple in his neck was hitting against his collar every time he drew breath and he tore at his collar nervously.

         • 2005, Sandra Benitez, Night of the Radishes, Hyperion, →ISBN:

           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."

         • 2020, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam, →ISBN, page 959:

           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.

      2. Short for apple-green (“a bright green colour with a light tint of yellow, like that of a Granny Smith apple”).

         apple:  

      3. (historical) Short for apple of the eye (“the pupil, or pupil and iris, of the eye, originally believed to be spherical; also, the eyeball”).
         • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XI.] A Discourse Anatomicall, of the Nature of Living Creatures, Part by Part, according to Their Particular Members.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 334:

           None have their eies all of one colour: for the ball or apple in the middeſt is ordinarily of another colour than the vvhite about it.

      4. (informal) The round, fleshy part of a cheek between the eye and the corner of the mouth when a person is smiling.
      6. (geometry) 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.

         Coordinate term: lemon

      7. (smoking) In full apple bowl: a round bowl of a tobacco pipe; also, a tobacco pipe with such a bowl.
      8. (obsolete, baseball, slang) In full old apple: a baseball. [from 20th c.]
         • 1990 February 25, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Sam Simon, “The Telltale Head”, in The Simpsons, season 1, episode 8:

           Hey Dad! What do you say we toss the old apple around, huh? Sound like fun?

   6. (Christianity) 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. [from 11th c.]
      • 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; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 485–487:

        Him by fraud I have ſeduc'd / From his Creator, and the more to increaſe / Your wonder, with an Apple; […]

      • 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, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 102:

        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.

      • 1975 (date written), Barry Reckord, “White Witch”, in For the Reckord: A Collection of Three Plays, London: Oberon Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

        Yes mam. Woman ate the apple, and discovered sex, and lost all shame, and lift^[sic] up her fig-leaf, and she must suffer the pains of hell. Monthly.

      • 1976, Joni Mitchell (lyrics and music), “Song for Sharon”, in Hejira, Los Angeles, Calif.: Asylum Records, →OCLC:

        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

   7. (obsolete, botany) 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”)
3. A tree of the genus Malus; especially Malus domestica which is cultivated for its edible fruit; the apple tree. [from 15th c.]

   Synonym: malus

   • 1913, John Weathers, Commercial Gardening, page 38:

     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.

   • 2000, P. A. Thomas, Trees: Their Natural History, page 227:

     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'.

   • 2009, Sid Gardner, The Faults of the Owens Valley, →ISBN, page 34:

     Used to be apple orchards, used to be the river and irrigation ditches that watered the apples, used to be mining towns.

   • 2012, Terri Reid, The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid, page 77:

     Other fruit trees, like apples, need well-drained soil.

4. Synonym of applewood (“the wood of the apple tree”) [from 19th c.]
5. (by extension, slang)
   1. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or redskinned person who acts or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.

      Coordinate terms: banana, coconut, Oreo, Twinkie

      • 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, →ISBN, page 537:

        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.

      • 2012 November 12, Joel Spring, chapter 9, in The Cultural Transformation of A Native American Family and Its Tribe 1763-1995: A Basket of Apples, Routledge, →ISBN:

        My ancestors five generations removed were "apples" who were "White" on the inside and "Red" on the outside.

   2. (amateur radio) Synonym of CBer (“a CB radio enthusiast”)
      • 1977, Bernard Dixon, editor, New Scientist, volume 74, London: IPC Magazines, page 764, column 1:

        Because of overcrowding, many a CB enthusiast (called an "apple") is strapping an illegal linear amplifier ("boots") on to his transceiver ("ears") which is limited by the Federal Communications Commission ("Big Daddy" in the US) to an output power of no more than five watts.

   3. (ice hockey) An assist.

• malic

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).
   • 1992, Marilyn Strathern, “Enterprising Kinship: Consumer Choice and the New Reproductive Technologies”, in Reproducing the Future: Essays on Anthropology, Kinship and the New Reproductive Technologies, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, part I, page 38:

     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 the most apple-like qualities.

   • 2007, Claudia D. Newcorn, chapter 4, in Crossover (Chronicles of Feyree; scroll 1), [United States]: Theogony Books, published 2021, →ISBN, page 35:

     A large smile appled his full cheeks as the four sprytes eagerly served themselves from the seeds and thinly sliced fruits.

2. (intransitive)
   1. To become like an apple.
      • 2003, Gregory David Roberts, chapter 1, in Shantaram, London: Hachette Digital, published 2012, →ISBN, part 1:

        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.

      • 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:

        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.

   2. (UK, dialectal, rare) To collect fir-cones.
   3. (obsolete except UK, dialectal) Of a flower bud or vegetable (especially a root vegetable): to grow into the shape of an apple.
      • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 98:

        For all the ſort of them [a type of thistle, possibly an artichoke] during the Summer throughout, never reſt and give over, but either they floure, or they apple, or els be readie to bring foorth fruit.

      • 1759, James Justice, “November”, in The British Gardener’s Calendar, […], Edinburgh: […] R. Fleming, →OCLC, page 307:

        You may novv ſovv upon moderate hot-beds, a fevv of the ſmall ſalad ſeeds, ſuch as VVhite Muſtard, Rape, Creſſes, and Cabbage Lettuces, and you may also ſovv upon other hot-beds, not to be drawn until they are pretty large and vvell appled, Radiſhes and Turnips, obſerving to ſovv them very thin, that the plants may have room to ſvvell and grovv; […]

      • 1798, Charles Marshall, “Section XV. Of Esculents.”, in An Introduction to the Knowledge and Practice of Gardening, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Rider, for F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 251:

        The cabbage turnep is of tvvo kinds; one apples above ground, and the other in it.

      • 1807, Thomas Potts, “TURNIPS”, in The British Farmer’s Cyclopædia; or, Complete Agricultural Dictionary; […], London: […] W. Flint, […], for Scatcherd and Letterman, […], and M. Jones, […], →OCLC, column 2:

        Some, however, recommend 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.

• appleing, appling (noun)

• apple on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• apple (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “apple, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “apple”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• pepla, appel, appel., Appel

apple

1. Alternative form of appel