apple

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A deciduous Eurasian tree (Malus pumila) having alternate simple leaves and white or pink flowers.
2. n. The firm, edible, usually rounded fruit of this tree.
3. n. Any of several other plants, especially those with fruits suggestive of the apple, such as the crab apple or custard apple.
4. n. The fruit of any of these plants.
5. idiom. apple of (one's) eye One that is treasured: Her grandson is the apple of her eye.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The fruit of a rosaceous tree, Pyrus Malus, a native probably of central Asia. The tree is now cultivated in nearly all temperate regions, in numerous varieties, and its fruit is in universal use. It was introduced into America from England in 1629, by the governor of Massachusetts Bay. It is scarcely known in its wild state, but as an escape from cultivation its fruit becomes small, acid, and harsh, and is known as the crab. The cultivated crab-apple is the fruit of other species of Pyrus. See crab.
2. n. The tree itself, Pyrus Malus.
3. n. A name popularly given to various fruits or trees having little or nothing in common with the apple. Among them are: Adam's apple (the lime, a variety of Citrus medica, and the plantain, Musa paradisiaca); the alligator-apple, Anona palustris; the balsamapple, Momordica Balsamina; the wild balsam-apple, Echinocystis lobata; the beef- or bull-apple, Sideroxylon rugosum; the bitter apple or colocynth, Citrullus Colocynthis; the apple of Cain. A rbutus Unedo; the cedar-apple, an excrescence upon the juniper caused by a fungus (Gymnosporangium macropus); the custard-apple, species of Anona, especially, in the West Indies, A. reticulata, and, in the East Indies, A. squamosa; the devil's or mandrake apple, Mandragora offcinalis; the egg-apple, or Jew's or mad apple, Solanum esculentum; the elephant-or wood-apple, Feronia elephantum; the golden apple of Bengal, Ægle Marmelos; the kangaroo-apple, Solanum laciniatum; the Kei apple, Aberia Caffra; the love-apple or tomato, Lycopersicum esculentum; the mammee-apple, Mammea Americana; the May or Indian apple, Podophyllum peltatum; the monkey-apple, Clusia flava; the Otaheite apple, Spondias dulcis; the apple of Peru, Nicandra physaloides; the Persian apple (an early name for the peach); the pineapple, Ananas sativa; the pond-apple, Anona laurifolia; the prairie-apple, the root of Psoralea esculenta; the rose-apple, species of Eugenia, especially E. Jambos; the seven-year apple, Genipa clusiæfolia; the star-apple, Chrysophyllum Cainito; the sugar-apple, Anona reticulata; the thorn-apple, Datura Stramonium and other species. The wild apples of Queensland are the drupaceous fruit of a species of Owenia.
4. n. Figuratively, some fruitless thing; something which disappoints one's hopes or frustrates one's desires.
5. n. Hence— Something very important, precious, or dear.
6. To give the form of apple to.
7. To grow into the form of apple.
8. To gather apples.
9. n. and The apple thrives under a very wide range of conditions, and in practically all temperate regions. In North America the chief regions in which it is produced commercially are the Eastern Canadian region, comprising parts of Ontario, Quebec, and the maritime provinces; the New England and New York region; the Piedmont region of Virginia; the Michigan-Ohio region; the prairie-plains region, from Indiana and Illinois to Missouri and Kansas, in which the Ben Davis variety is the leading factor; the Ozark region, comprising part of Missouri and Arkansas, often known as “the land of the big red apple”; and the rapidly developing regions of the Rocky Mountain States and the Coast States. In all these sections there are certain dominant varieties, which are usually less successful in other localities. As a country grows older, it usually, happens that the list of desirable apples increases in length, because of the choosing of varieties to suit special localities and special needs. It is impossible to give lists of varieties for planting in all parts of the country, either for market or home use. The number of varieties of apples runs into the thousands. A generation and more ago, the great emphasis in apple-growing was placed on varieties, and the old fruit-books testify to the great development of systematic pomology. The choice of varieties is not less important now; but other subjects have greatly increased in importance with the rise of commercial fruit-growing, such as the necessity and means of tilling the soil, fertilization and cover-cropping, the combating of insects and diseases (especially by means of spraying), and revised methods of handling, storing, and marketing. The result is the transfer of the emphasis to scientific and commercial questions. The apple has been generally referred to the rosaceous genus Pyrus, although some recent authors reinstate the old genus Malus. Under the former genus it is known as Pyrus Malus; under the latter as Malus Malus. The nearest generic allies are the pears, comprising the typical genus Pyrus. The pears are distinguished, among other things, by having the styles free to the base; the apples by having the styles more or less united below. The species Malus Malus has run into almost numberless forms under the influence of long domestication. These forms are distinguished not only by differences in fruit, but by habit of tree and marked botanical characteristics. Thus the bloomless apple (see seedless apple) has more or less diclinous flowers, and it was early described as a distinct species under the name of Pyrus dioica. There are many forms of dwarf apple-trees, the best-known of which is the paradise or garden-apple. On this and similar stocks any variety of apple may be grafted or budded if very small or dwarf trees are desired. There are apple-trees with variegated foliage, others with double flowers, and others with a weeping or drooping habit. In China and Japan there is a double-flowered and showy-flowered apple of a very closely allied but apparently distinct species, Malus spectabilis. See also crab-apple.

Wiktionary

1. n. A common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates.
2. n. A tree growing such fruit, of the genus Malus; the apple tree.
3. n. The wood of the apple tree.
4. n. in the plural, Cockney rhyming slang Short for apples and pears, slang for stairs.
5. n. baseball, slang, obsolete The ball in baseball.
6. n. informal When smiling, the round, fleshy part of the cheeks between the eyes and the corners of the mouth.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in numberless varieties in the temperate zones.
2. n. (bot.) Any tree genus Pyrus which has the stalk sunken into the base of the fruit; an apple tree.
3. n. Any fruit or other vegetable production resembling, or supposed to resemble, the apple.
4. n. Anything round like an apple.
5. v. To grow like an apple; to bear apples.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. native Eurasian tree widely cultivated in many varieties for its firm rounded edible fruits
2. n. fruit with red or yellow or green skin and sweet to tart crisp whitish flesh