apple n.1
1. a person.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Color of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 I’m trying to save up a retirement fund before some sharp apple prints my name on a bullet. | |
| Long Wait (1954) 80: He got medals in the army fer being a rough apple. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Oh! To be in England (1985) 337: Well, how’s Charley boy? And how’s my little apple? | |
| N.Y. Times 12 Feb. n.p.: Of this group of 12 maybe there were 2 bad apples, but not John — John is definitely good [R]. | |
| Observer 18 July 33: Turner’s judgement stands out, because he doesn’t pick a few bad apples but condemns the whole barrel. |
2. a foolish person, a ‘sucker’.
| in Marschall That Old Gang o’ Mine (1984) 43: ‘I can’t say,’ replied the poor apple. | |
| Und. Speaks 3/1: Apple, a person engaged in a legitimate occupation. | |
| ‘Peanuts! The Pickle Dealers’ in AS XVI:3 Oct. 190: To feel like an apple. To feel embarrassed. | |
| Beat Generation 57: These married apples, they want you to punish them for enjoying it. | |
| It’s Cold Out There 38: Jesus, would you shake the apples. They’d think they were up against King Kong. | |
| ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 197: apple, n. – a derisive name; anything bad or not highly regarded; a dimwit, dupe, or goose. |
3. (US) in uses based on the shape.
(a) a ball.
| Two & Three 23 Apr. [synd. col.] Looks like Tarzan Ruth is out to hang up a new mileage record for that stitched apple. he sure spanks that old cocoanut. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 29 Nov. 14/6: Bleacher fans have already tagged him as one who [...] ‘can sock that old apple to a fare-ye-well’. | |
| Sixty Seconds 48: There wasn’t any bigness [...] to grabbing the apple and winging it to a baseman’s mitt. | |
| Dict. Amer. Sl. 203: apple, a baseball. | |
| About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 55: ‘Hold on to that egg, guv’nor,’ Rooster said in the direction of a rookie receiver. ‘’Cause you can’t score without that apple’. |
(b) the head.
| Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 382: The entire Democratic party of California will get turned on, zonked out of their apples. |
4. (Aus./US Und., also big apple, top apple) an important person.
 | Ranche & Range (N. Yakima, WA) 17 Aug. 3/1: The county buyer is mighty ‘small potatoes.’ The city buyer [...] is the big apple. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Fact’ry ’Ands 1: She’s [...] their top apple, th’ ’ole blessed cake-walk, ’n’ straight ez er church. | |
| et al. DAUL 19/1: Apple. A big shot; a personage of real or pretended distinction in the underworld. ‘Mike’s got to be an apple In the alky (alcohol) racket now.’ [Ibid.] Big apple. A big shot; one who has, or creates the illusion of having, influence, money, etc. | |
| Best that Ever Did It (1957) 153: Franzino was there, along with two big apples from the Police Department. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 76: For once I want to nail down a big boy, a top apple. | |
| Web of the City (1983) 34: ‘Where’s the apple?’ Rusty asked, meaning Candle. |
5. (US black) the vagina [note 17C apple, a woman and/or her virginity (see Williams I 28–9), although note that apples n. (1) orig. meant breasts; an apple is also something to eat v. (4)].
| [ | | Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 46: I’ll expose every part / Of my brown apple cart, / Ad stifle , quite stifle, the boy in its charms . |
| implied in punch the apple | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 228: apple […] 3. Vagina. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 409: Q. Who had the first computers? A. Adam and Eve. She had an Apple and he had a Wang (schoolyard humor, New York City, 1984). |
6. in uses based on the colour green.
(a) (US black) money.
| Psychology of Black Lang. in Major (1994). |
(b) (N.Z.) NZ$100.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 11: apple 1. $100 [NZ] bill, arrived at in a roundabout way from the rhyming slang ‘apples and spice’ for nice. |
7. in uses based on the colour red.
(a) a derog. term for a Native American who is condemned as insufficiently nationalistic, i.e. ‘red on the outside but white within’.
| Time 19 Mar. 18: The group’s tactics enrage more conservative Indians, whom AIM refers to as ‘apples’ — red on the outside, white on the inside. | |
| Blue Highways 182: I’m no apple Indian — red outside and white underneath. | |
| Sl. and Sociability 121: Minority students who act white are identified with slang, for example, apples for ‘Native Americans’, bananas for ‘Asians’, and oreos for ‘African Americans’. |
(b) (drugs) any pill capsule coloured red.
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 168: Other expressions likened Seconal to [...] ‘food’ that nourishes you – apples, yum yums, jellybeans. | |
| ‘Not Virtual Just Reality’ Project on Queen Mary ULU, School of English 🌐 Brand names, which reflect the social acceptance of such drugs [i.e. MDMA], include: White Doves, Disco Biscuits, Burgers, Big brown Ones, New Yorkers, Californian Sunrise, Phasers, Whirlwinds, Dollars, Pounds, Apples, to name but a few. | |
| ecstasy.org 🌐 User reports: Got these lovable Apples in the Great Town of Denver. There are 2 Apples out there and have tried them both together. One being white and the others green. I took the white one first and then a green,an hour and a half later, I was floored. |
8. (drugs) anyone who does not use drugs.
| Drug Abuse. |
9. see apple sauce n.2
10. see horse apple under horse n.
In compounds
(US) a fool, thus adj. apple-headed, foolish.
| Sun (NY) 2 Dec. 31/4: You’re your own boss. you don’t have no apple-headed ijiit, with a gol’ eyeglass and sideburn whiskers tellin’ you [etc]. | |
| Phantom Herd 279: ‘Say, Applehead,’ came a plaintive voice from Pink’s bunk. | |
| N.Y. Times 24 Sept. 34: ‘You sir,’ thundered the Old Arbitrator, ‘are an apple-head’ [W&F]. | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 106: I don’t believe that applehead. [Ibid.] 371: You applehead freak. | |
| (con. 1940s) Wax Boom 297: This apple-head Spiro? | |
| (con. 1930s–50s) Night People 117: Apple-head. Apple shaped head. |
a pimp.
| Gloss. (1888) I 29: †apple-monger. Literally a dealer in apples; but applied to a dealer in fruit in general. The sellers of fruit seem to have been not unfrequently employed in love intrigues, and hence apple-monger is sometimes used in the sense of a bawd, or apple-squire. | |
| DSUE (1984) 23/2: C.18. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
the human body.
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn). | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
the female breasts.
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Apple Dumpling Shop a Woman’s Bosom. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn). | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
| Swell’s Night Guide 108/1: Apple dumplings, a woman’s bosom, dugs, cat’s heads, milk shops. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 94: Deux pommes (les). The paps; ‘the apple-dumpling shop’. | |
| Le Slang. |
(Aus.) an inhabitant of Tasmania.
| Aussie Sl. 10: Apple Eaters Residents of Tasmania. |
(UK Und.) a scarf and tie.
| Police! 321: A scarf and tie ... An apple-guard. |
a foolish and prob. impotent old man.
| Every Man Out of his Humour II ii: Some call him Apple-John. | |
| Bartholomew Fair I iii: littlewit: A fool-John she calls me [...] A fool-John! quarlous: She may call you an apple-John, if you use this. |
see separate entries.
(US) a fool, an unsophisticated person, a country person.
| ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 297: You biff this apple picker once on the chin, and we cut the money. |
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
(US) a rural, unsophisticated person.
| Forecastle 15: The officer called me a ‘hay-maker,’ ‘apple-shaker,’ etc., and ordered me up on the mainyard [...] until some of the hay seed had blown away from me [HDAS]. |
see separate entries.
(US) a rural, unsophisticated person.
| (con. 1910s) A Corporal Once 206: G’wan, run away back to your own outfit o’ apple-squeezers before someone shakes his fists at yuh. |
1. a pimp.
| Hye way to the Spyttel House Diii: Lechours, fornycatours, and aduouterers, / Incestes, harlots, bawdes and bolsterers, / Applesquyers, entycers, and rauyshers, / These to our place haue dayly herbegers. | |
| Dialogue 8: His little lackey, a proper young apple squire, called Pandarus, whiche carrieth the keye of his chamber with hym [F&H]. | |
| Notable Discovery of Coosnage 37: The Bawd, if a man, an Apple squire The whoore, a Commoditie / The whoore house, a Trugging place. | |
| Every Man In his Humour V i: And you, young apple squire, and old cuckold maker. | |
| Belman of London H1: The base Applesquire and his yong mistres, laughing to see what a woodcocke they puld, and sharing the feathers betweene them. | |
| A Fair Quarrel IV iv: That name was never thine, But apple-squire and pander. | |
| ‘A Discovery by Sea’ in Works (1869) II 21: Are Whoremasters decai’d, are Bawds all dead, / Are Pandars, Pimps, and Apple-squires all fled? | |
| Microcosmus Act V: Together with my lady’s, my fortune fell, and of her gentleman usher I became her apple squire, to hold the door and keep centinel at taverns. | |
| Mercurius Fumigosus 35 24–31 Jan. 276: A Shee-Costermonger, daughter to an Apple-Squire in Kent, which sells open Arses dead and alive. | |
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 218: And even of Stocks and Stones enquire / Of Atys, her small Apple-squire. | |
| Poor Robin... n.p.: Little truth will be found amongst cut-purses, liars, bawds, whores, pimps, pandars, and apple-squires [F&H]. | |
| Gloss. (1888) I 29: apple squire. A cant word, formerly in use to signify a pimp. | |
| Westward Ho III 295: Here’s a fellow calls himself the captain of a ship, and Her Majesty’s servant, and talks about failing, as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her applesquire ashore! | |
| Old Book Collector’s Misc. 11: apple squires. — Pimps, panders. |
2. a kept man; occas. as v.
| Unfortunate Traveller in Works V (1883–4) 157: What a proper apple-squire is this you bring so suspitiously into my chamber? | |
| Satires in Davenport (1949) I ii 35: Each base Apple-squire, / Can serve to sate their beastly lewd desire. | |
| Gloss. (1888) I 29: apple squire is also used for a kept gallant. | |
| Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 8: Aide-mari, m. A married woman’s lover; ‘an apple-squire’. | |
| letter in Letters (1981) 1 Feb. 31: Douglas Glass has gone to Holland, where he is apple-squiring a rich Dutch bluestocking who has fallen madly in love with him. |
see separate entries.
In phrases
(US) an absolute certainty.
| ‘The Humming Bird’ in Sandburrs 26: Youse put a poor sucker in d’ dark hole, an’ be d’ end of ten hours it’s apples to ashes he ain’t onto it whether he’s been in a day or a week. | |
| Boss 275: ‘He would seek worse resorts?’ ‘It’s a cinch, Madam!’ ‘And he’d be murdered?’ ‘Madam, it’s apples to ashes!’. |
(US) to toady, to curry favour.
| in DARE. |
(US) a general intensifier, meaning ‘at all’; usu. in negative, not for sour apples, not at all; often not like for sour apples, to have no interest in whatsoever.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Nov. 38/1: ‘Is he much of an actor?’ / ‘Not much. Pretty fair in Shakspeare. But, Gad, sir! he can’t patter or do a clog dance for sour apples.’. | |
| Smoke Bellew (1926) 170: The table stood close to the fire, and the blamed wheel’s warped. [...] He couldn’t have bucked for sour apples at any other table. | |
| Bullets For The Bridegroom (1953) 15: He didn’t like Walter Gates for sour apples. | |
| Maori Girl 216: But I can’t paint for sour apples. | |
| (con. 1900s) Shootist 132: You can’t fight for sour apples. |
(US) to blunder, to make mistakes.
| Carlito’s Way 139: Get him off the script for one question and he gets the apple right away. |
to masturbate.
| One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding 40: I gits movin okay an I goin fine’s I ever do go, and I snappin the whip an punchin the apple. |
1. (US, also sad bird) a contemptible person.
| Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: The ‘sad bird’ or the ‘sad weed,’ the man who is not popular. | |
| ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 211: sad bird, someone of little account, worthless, or unscrupulous. | |
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: sad apple ... a goldbrick. One who shuns work. | |
| Serenade to the Big Bird 65: There are some sad apples in every land. | |
| Boys’ Life Aug. 29: ‘If I can’t put all four arrows in the center, I’m a sad apple.’ Zing went the shaft, and the sad apple watched it hit five feet beyond the target. |
2. a pitiable person.
| To Love and Corrupt 286: Oh, that Ellie was a sad apple. |
(US) a bright, intelligent person.
| Walk in Sun 48: Tyne, you’re a smart apple. Keep your head. | |
| (con. 1944) Naked and Dead 293: You got to be a smart apple if you want to live big. | |
| One Lonely Night 84: Some smart apple started to check out the unidentified bodies in the morgue. | |
| Who is Teddy Villanova? 234: You’re some kinda real smart apple. |
1. (US Und.) an innocent, a naïve, gullible individual.
| We Who Are About to Die 182: Now that’s a square apple for you, see? | |
| ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981). | |
| S.F. Examiner (CA) 12 July 38/1: Loudest of the squawkers turned out to be [...] one Joe ‘Square Apple’ Lynch of Los Angeles. | |
| Narcotics Lingo and Lore 173: Square apple – A person free from addiction. |
2. (US police) a police officer or private indiidual who is not susceptible to corruption.
| Thicker ’n Thieves 66: Among police officers, Lieutenant Stewart was what is known as a ‘square apple,’ meaning that he didn’t take graft, and that he didn’t countenance the taking of graft by anyone who worked under him. |
(US black) the earth, the world.
| N.Y. Amsterdam News 7 June. 13: We young cats is hipped [...] on what’s wrong with the twistin’ apple. |
(US) one who is too clever for their own good.
| Harder They Fall (1971) 174: A wise apple. But he didn’t bother me. | |
| Serenade to the Big Bird 76: If the wise-apples could just decide now [...] that everybody has enough peanut butter and toilet paper. | |
| West Side Story II i: OK, wise apples, down to the station house. | |
| Duke of Deception (1990) 185: The rest of us – ‘negos,’ carpers, corner-cutters, and wise-apples – bucked the system and had some fun. | |
| Good Words 298: Wise apple. A shrewd person. |
In exclamations
see under down adv.1
(US) a response indicating a lack of sympathy with the speaker.
| Theatre Happening 166: I don’t care if you are my family, you can damn well leave me alone to run my own life ... if you don't like it . . . tough apples! | |
| Willy Remembers 89: Tracy [...] figured he should be with the Rough Riders, but being just a middle shot, got us. Tough apples. | |
| NorthEastTimes.com 7 Nov. 🌐 We can expect the usual howls of protest from the misguided souls at the American Civil Liberties Union who may not be terribly sanguine about Big Brother watching traffic, but to those civil libertarians, we say tough apples. | |
| Housebroken 57: Quickly I mutter ‘Tough apples!’ then toss my braids, shrugging past that awful lady which only confirms her poor opinion of me. ‘Spoiled rotten’ I hear her hiss. |