apple

An apple (sense 1.1).

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

The Fall of Man (c. 1560) by Frans Floris,^{[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):

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• Audio (Southern England):

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

• 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.
      • 153, 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 Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ 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:

        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 Ponder , →OCLC, page 233:

        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 Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 501:

        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, plums; your ragamuffins, 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: 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.

      • a. 1931 (date written), D H Lawrence, “Flowery Tuscany”, in Edward D McDonald, editor, Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence, London: William Heinemann, published 1936, →OCLC, section III, page 52:

        This red seems to me the perfect premonition of summer—like the red on the outside of apple blossom—and later, the red of the apple. It is the premonition in redness of summer and of autumn.

      • 2013 October 28, John Vallins, “Apples of Concord”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, 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).

      custard apple    rose apple    thorn apple

      • 1555, Gonzalus Ferdinandus Ouiedus [i.e., Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés], “. 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 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 Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ 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, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner], Edward Topsell, chapter IX, in The Historie of Foure-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 , 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 Payne, , →OCLC, paragraph 13, page 302:

        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, chapter IX, in A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Undertaken, by the Command of His Majesty, for Making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. , volume II, London: W and A. Strahan; for G Nicol, ; and T Cadell, , →OCLC, book III (Transactions at Otaheite, and the Society Islands; and Prosecution of the Voyage to the Coast of North America), page 174:

        t [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 H 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 ”, 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.
      • 1601, C Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ The First Invention of Glasse, and the Manner of Making It. Of a Kind of Glasse, Called Obsidianum. Also of Sundrie Kinds of Glasse, and Those of Manie Formes..”, 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 598:

        old a round ball or hollovv apple of glaſſe full of vvater againſt the Sunne, it vvill be ſo hot, that it is ready to burne any cloth that it toucheth.

      • 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:

        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 Richardson, , →OCLC, page 508:

        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 W 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 Clifford, “In Arcadia”, in Studies in Brown Humanity: Being Scrawls and Smudges in Sepia, White, and Yellow, London: Grant Richards , →OCLC, 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 like a ball balanced on a dancing jet of water.

         • 1920 December – 1921 September (date written), Henry Williamson, “Formation of the Owl Club”, in Dandelion Days, London; Glasgow: W Collins Sons & Co., published 1922, →OCLC, pages 113–114:

           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 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 10: Wandering Rocks]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC, part II , page 234:

           He looked with vague hope up and down the quay, a big apple bulging in his neck.

         • a. 1985 (date written), Liam O’Flaherty, “Josephine”, in A A. Kelly, editor, The Collected Stories, volume 1, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, published 1999, →ISBN, page 131:

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

         • 2000 August 8, George R R Martin, A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire; 3)‎, London: Voyager, HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN:

           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.

         • 2003, Sandra Benítez, Night of the Radishes, New York, N.Y.: Hyperion, →ISBN, page 223:

           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."

      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 Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ 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.

         • , Homer, “The XIV. Booke of Homers Iliads”, in Geo Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. , London: Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC, pages 197–198:

           The dart did vndergore / His eye-lid, by his eyes deare rootes; and out the apple fell, / The eye pierc'd through: […]

      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.
         • 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.
      • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC, signature , recto, lines 485–487:

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

      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter V, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volume III, London: 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.

      • 1829, Robert Southey, “All for Love, or A Sinner Well Saved. Canto II.”, in All for Love; and The Pilgrim to Compostela, London: John Murray, , →OCLC, page 20:

        Yes, of all human follies, love, / Methinks, hath served me best. / The Apple had done but little for me / If Eve had not done the rest.

      • 1871, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Congratulations, etc.”, in My Wife and I: Or, Harry Henderson’s History, New York, N.Y.: J. B. Ford and Company, →OCLC, page 399:

        Yes, fair Eve, just as Adam ate the apple, so beware!

      • 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 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.

   Synonym: malus

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis , “VI. Century. [Experiments in Consort, Touching the Lasting of Herbs and Trees.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. , London: William Rawley ; rinted by J H for William Lee , →OCLC, paragraph 584, page 146:

     Trees that beare Maſt, and Nuts, are commonly more laſting, than thoſe that beare Fruits; Eſpecially the Moiſter Fruits: As Oakes, Beeches, Cheſ-nuts, VVall-nuts, Almonds, Pine-Trees, &c. laſt longer than Apples, Peares, Plums, &c.

   • 1913, “The Science of Plant Growing”, in John Weathers, editor, Commercial Gardening , volume I, London: The Gresham Publishing Company , →OCLC, §4 (The Root and Its Work), 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, Peter Thomas, “The Next Generation: New Trees from Old”, in Trees: Their Natural History, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 2001, →ISBN, 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, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →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, “Starting an Orchard”, in The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid: A Back-to-basics Manual for Independent Living (Everything Series), Avon, Mass.: Adams Media, F+W Media, →ISBN, page 77:

     Some fruit trees, like plums, do well in damp soil conditions. Other fruit trees, like apples, need well-drained soil.

4. Synonym of applewood (“the wood of the apple tree”)
5. (by extension, slang)
   1. (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.

   2. (ice hockey) An assist.
   3. (US, derogatory, ethnic slur) A Native American or redskinned person who acts or thinks like a white (Caucasian) person.

      Coordinate terms: banana, coconut, Oreo, Twinkie

      • 1996, Joel Spring, “From Thomas Jefferson to Henry Ford: The End of the Choctaw Republic”, in The Cultural Transformation of A Native American Family and Its Tribe 1763–1995: A Basket of Apples, Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, published 2011, →DOI, →ISBN, part II (The Choctaw Republic and Its People):

        My ancestors five generations removed were "apples" who were "White" on the inside and "Red" on the outside. […] We need a new breed of "apples."

      • 1998, Opal J. Moore, “‘From the Back of the Bus to the Back of the National Priority List’: The Civil Rights Movement, Integration, and beyond ”, in Daryl Cumber Dance, editor, Honey, Hush! An Anthology of African American Women’s Humor, New York, N.Y.: 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.

• 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), : 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 Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “ Of Carduus, and Ixine: Of Tribulus and Anchusa.”, 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:

        As for Scolymus [possibly type of artichoke?], it differeth from the reſt of theſe Thiſtles herein, That the root, if it be ſodden, it is good to be eaten: beſides, it hath a ſtraunge nature, for all the ſort of them during the Summer throughout, never reſt and give over, but either they floure, or they apple, or els be readie to bring foorth fruit: […]

      • , London: Matthew Gillyflower, , and James Partridge, , →OCLC, column 1:

        To Pome or Apple, is ſaid of the Heads of Artichokes vvhen they grovv round, and full ſhaped as an Apple. It is ſaid alſo of Lettuce, &c.]

      • 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 and C 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