Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US black) Harlem, NYC.

1938		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 30 July 11/1: I will be glad when we cut into the Apple so you and I can get together.
1942		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 17 Oct. 10: When we do get back to the ‘Apple,’ Muds will have brushed.
1951		N.Y. Age 29 Dec. 14/1: ’Twasn’t so merry for the hustlers and ‘wise boys’ along the ‘Apple’ this year.
c.1953		Babs Gonzales ‘Manhattan Fable’ 🎵 About a deuce of long black-&-whites ago, a stud from the Natural Lowlands made it to The Apple.
2016		T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘The Irish boys in the Apple don’t have as much structure as the old days’.

2. (US black) a large Northern city.

1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 18: What those grey studs [...] don’t cop is that the average Lane today is from the Apple, whether it’s the Big Apple, the Windy Apple, the Tropic Apple, or the Bunker Hill Apple.
1971		(con. 1930s–50s) D. Wells Night People 117: Apple. Big city.

3. the earth, the universe.

1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 44: When he plucketh the eider feathers of the sky / Geese and scattereth them upon this twirling Apple.
1957		R.S. Gold ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 277: apple. The earth; the universe; New York City.

4. (orig. US jazz) usu. the Apple, New York City.

1944		Helen Humes ‘I Would If I Could’ 🎵 So it’s back to the apple, and find me a better man / Well I would if I could, but damn if I think I can.
1950		F. Miller Gutbucket and Gossamer 26: Why should she stay in the Apple over a July weekend?
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 35: Meanwhile all the swingers will have taken off for Venice or the Apple.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 47: The streets of that part of the Apple called the Bronx.
1988		N. George ‘Nationwide’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 82: The idea that such an institution would be run by a white man in Texas makes many brothers here in the Apple bristle.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 113: Suzi is a past-due tourist, a Brazilian national who came to visit the Apple and long overstayed the welcome her visa provided.
2006		G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 212: Straight in from the Apple today.