apple

apple any tree (and its fruit) of the genus Malus of the family Rosaceae ( rose family). Apples were formerly considered species of the pear genus Pyrus, with which they share the characteristic pome fruit. The common apple ( M. sylvestris ) is the best known and is commercially the most important temperate fruit. Apparently native to the Caucasus Mts. of W Asia, it has been under cultivation since prehistoric times. According to ancient tradition, the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden was the apple (Gen. 3). In religious painting, the apple represents the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as do occasionally the pear and the quince. It was sacred to Aphrodite in classical mythology. The apple is now widely grown in thousands of varieties, e.g., the Golden Delicious, Winesap, Jonathan, and McIntosh. The tree is hardy in cold climates, and the firm fruit is easy to handle and store. Most apples are consumed fresh, but some are canned or used for juice. Apple juice (sweet cider) is partly fermented to produce hard cider and fully fermented to make vinegar. Wastes from fermenting processes are a major source of pectin . Applejack is a liquor made from hard cider. Western Europe, especially France, is the chief apple-producing region; in North America, also with an enormous total output, Washington is the leading apple-growing state, but very many areas grow crops at least for local consumption. The tree is subject to several insect and fungus pests, for which the orchards are sprayed. The hardwood is used for cabinetmaking and fuel. The crab apples are wild North American and Asian species of Malus now cultivated as ornamentals for their fragrant white to deep pink blossoms—e.g., the American sweet, or garland, crab apple ( M. coronaria ), the prairie crab apple ( M. ioensis ), and the Siberian crab apple ( M. baccata ). The small, hard, sour crab-apple fruits are used for preserves, pickles, and jelly; in growth and culture these trees are similar to the common apple. Apples are classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Rosaceae.

apples apples and oranges (of two people or things) fundamentally or irreconcilably different. A North American expression, comparable with chalk and cheese.
apples and pears rhyming slang for ‘stairs’, recorded from the mid 19th century.
she's apples used to indicate that everything is in good order and there is nothing to worry about (informal Australian and New Zealand usage). The expression comes from apples and spice or apples and rice, rhyming slang for ‘nice’.

See also apple, small choice in rotten apples.

apple traditionally the fruit with which Eve was tempted by the serpent. Apples are also an emblem of St Dorothy.
an apple a day keeps the doctor away traditional saying, recorded from the mid 19th century, reflecting a view of the health-giving properties of apples.
apple of discord in Greek mythology, the golden apple inscribed ‘For the fairest,’ said to have been thrown by Eris, the personification of discord, into the assembly of the gods, and contended for by Hera, Athene, and Aphrodite. Paris of Troy (see Paris), chosen by the gods to adjudicate, awarded the apple to Aphrodite; the result was to be the Trojan War.
Apple Island in Australia, an informal name for Tasmania, because of its popular identification as an apple-growing region.
the apple never falls far from the tree recorded in English from the mid 19th century, and apparently of Eastern origin, this saying is frequently used to assert the continuity of family characteristics.
apple of one's eye is a person of whom one is extremely fond and proud, originally denoting the pupil of the eye, considered to be a globular solid body, extended as a symbol of something cherished.
rotten apple a bad person in a group, typically one whose behaviour is likely to have a corrupting influence on the rest; with allusion to the fact that a rotten apple causes other fruit with which it is in contact to rot.
upset the apple cart spoil a plan or disturb the status quo; apple cart as a metaphor for a satisfactory but possibly precarious state of affairs is recorded in various expressions from the late 18th century onwards.

See also apple pie, apples, Big Apple, golden apple, the rotten apple injures its neighbours.