apple
Americannoun
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the usually round, red or yellow, edible fruit of a small tree, Malus sylvestris, of the rose family.
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the tree, cultivated in most temperate regions.
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the fruit of any of certain other species of tree of the same genus.
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any of these trees.
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any of various other similar fruits, or fruitlike products or plants, as the custard apple, love apple, May apple, or oak apple.
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Informal. anything resembling an apple in size and shape, as a ball, especially a baseball.
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Bowling. an ineffectively bowled ball.
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Slang. a red capsule containing a barbiturate, especially secobarbital.
noun
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a rosaceous tree, Malus sieversii , native to Central Asia but widely cultivated in temperate regions in many varieties, having pink or white fragrant flowers and firm rounded edible fruits See also crab apple
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the fruit of this tree, having red, yellow, or green skin and crisp whitish flesh
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the wood of this tree
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any of several unrelated trees that have fruits similar to the apple, such as the custard apple, sugar apple, and May apple See also love apple oak apple thorn apple
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a person or thing that is very precious or much loved
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a person with a corrupting influence
Etymology
Origin of apple
First recorded before 900; Middle English appel, Old English æppel; cognate with Old Frisian, Dutch appel, Old Saxon apl, appul, Old High German apful ( German Apfel ), Crimean Gothic apel, from unattested Germanic aplu (akin to Old Norse epli, from unattested apljan ); Old Irish ubull (neuter), Welsh afal, Breton aval, from unrecorded pre-Celtic ǫblu; Lithuanian óbuolas, -ỹs, Latvian âbuol(i)s (with reshaped suffix), Old Prussian woble, perhaps Thracian (din)upla, (sin)upyla “wild pumpkin,” Old Church Slavonic (j)ablŭko (representing unrecorded ablŭ-ko, neuter), from unattested Balto-Slavic āblu-. Avalon
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Its "apple crisp green" could be a nod to America, she adds.
From BBC
The 56-year old said: "I buy a lot of the fresh fruit and vegetables to make things like apple strudels, chips or shepherd's pie, so it has cut the cost of my midweek shop."
From BBC
We listened to Christmas music while making gingerbread and sipping cranberry apple cider.
Dollops of apple butter melt into the warm custard during baking, creating pockets of spiced fruit that taste like fall condensed into a single slice.
From Salon
An apple in hand, she said she started queuing around 11:00 local time on Sunday – nearly a full day before the session – because dozens of people had come before her.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.