apple-pie order, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

apple-pie order n.

[ety. unknown. Such suggestions that exist include a corruption of Fr. cap à pie (head to foot), the arrangement of the ingredients of an apple pie as they are laid neatly in a dish, and a corruption of alpha-beta, esp. as in the nursery rhyme that runs ‘A ate it, B bit it, C cut it, D divided it...’. Perhaps the most acceptable is that proposed in Brewer’s Dict. of Phrase and Fable (1995): f. Fr. nappe plié, folded linen, which may also give the practical joker’s ‘apple-pie bed’]

neatness, tidiness.

1780		T. Pasley Private Sea Journals 12 May (1931) 87: The Officers muster the Cloths of the Men [...] and I their Persons Clean and in apple-Pie order on Sundays.
1813		W. Scott letter 20 Oct. in Lockhart Life (1896) 248/1: The children’s garden is in apple-pie order .
1821		‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 290: By now all was in apple pie order.
1828		Bell’s Life in London 7 Sept. 3/1: Everything went off in ‘apple-pie order’.
1834		Marryat Jacob Faithful I 142: Take the helm, while I and Tom put the craft a little into apple pie order.
1840		R. Barham ‘Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 266: I am just in the ‘order’ which some folks – though why / I am sure I can’t tell you – would call ‘Apple-pie’.
1841		W. Leman Rede Sixteen String Jack I iii: I [...] wish him to find everything in apple-pie order.
1858		W. Pratt Ten Nights in a Bar-Room I i: I flatter myself every thing is in apple-pie order.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash II 170: An enormous book he has made of the newspaper cuttings all in apple-pie order.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1876		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 5 May 4/4: Everything in or about the [Japanese] house is kept in the most ‘apple-pie’ ordert.
1880		G.F. Northall ‘Momus’ Misc. 19: They all marched in apple-pie order.
1881		Eve. News (Sydney) 3 Jan. 3/1: Inside the building the powerful [...] engines are kept in apple-pie order.
1886		H. Goldsmid Dottings of a Dosser 115: Nothing can be more easy than to have the houses in [...] apple-pie order when the inspector comes round.
1892		J.R. Couper Mixed Humanity 341: If you don’t keep your house [...] in apple-pie order – you know the consequences.
1892		Port Pirie Standard (SA) 25 Aug. 2/4: The contractors [...] had everything in apple-pie order for the opening [i.e. of a new bridge].
1902		J. Conrad Heart of Darkness 46: And as he was devoted to his books, everything was in apple-pie order.
1908		Ballarat Star (Vic.) 25 Nov. 4/3: Everything is reported to he in applie pie order, and a great success is predicted.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 436: apple-pie, adj. Excellent; perfect ‘The house is all cleaned and in apple-pie order’.
1914		W. Australian (Perth) 5 Oct. 8/5: In Liege itself, [...] everything was ‘in apple pie order,’ the cafes were open, and the Germans paid for everything.
1917		H.S. Truman letter 28 Oct. in Ferrell Dear Bess (1983) 233: I have to get the canteen in apple-pie order.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 376: The crystal palace of the Creator all in applepie order.
1928		Maitland Wkly Mercury (NSW) 27 Oct. 14/5: Everything passed off at ths local poll in “apple pie” order,’ said Mr. H. Robinson, presiding officer.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 86: A spick-and-span house in a spick-and-span yard where everything is in apple-pie order is not always a good bet.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 289: There was no chance of proving a charge of wilful damage of property. Everything was in apple-pie order.
1946		J.F. Bardin Deadly Pecheron in Bardin Omnibus (1976) 49: The place was in apple-pie order and nothing seemed to be missing.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 137: Three bathrooms to be kept [...] ‘spanking clean’ and ‘in apple-pie order.’.
1973		A. Buckeridge Speaking of Jennings (1989) 91: I’m hoping everything will be in apple-pie order for their visit.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 20: Everything may be said to be in apple-pie order.