apple of someone's eye
The object of somebody's affections; a person (or sometimes a thing) that someone strongly prefers; a favorite, a loved one.
Sara was never the same after losing her daughter, the apple of her eye.
noun
A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
All apples eaten ſoone after yͭ they be gathered, are cold, hard to digeſt, and do make ill and corrupted bloud, but being wel kept vntill yͤ next winter, or the year folowing, eatẽ [eaten] after meales, they are right holeſome, & doe confyrme the ſtomacke, & make good digeſtion, ſpecially if they be roſted or baked, […]
[T]hey [i.e., writers] aſſigne and lay to India, the countrey of the Aſpagores, ſo plentifull in vines, laurels, and box, and generally of all ſorts of apple trees and other fruitfull trees that grovv vvithin Greece.
A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
custard apple rose apple thorn apple
The apples wherewith the Indian Canibales inueneme theyr arrowes, growe on certeyne trees couered with many braunches and leaues beinge very greene and growyng thicke. They are laden with abundaunce of theſe euyll frutes, […]
A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
[H]old a round ball or hollovv apple of glaſſe full of vvater againſt the Sunne, it vvill be ſo hot, that it is ready to burne any cloth that it toucheth.
[S]hrugging up her Shoulders, to ſhevv the tempting Apples of her vvhite Breaſts, ſhe ſuddainly lets them ſink again, to hide them, bluſhing, as if this had been done by chance, […]
A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
The sweat of fear and exertion was streaming down his face and chest, and his breath came in short, tearing, hard-drawn gasps and gulps, while the apple in his throat leaped up and down ceaselessly like a ball balanced on a dancing jet of water.
Elsie went away with her parents to Belgium and the convent-school on the twelfth, and as they left The Firs in the battered station cab surrounded by boxes and trunks, Willie could not speak. The apple in his throat rose and remained there.
A common, firm, round fruit produced by a tree of the genus Malus.
verb
To make (something) appear like an apple (noun noun sense 1.1).
To choose responsibly, our active citizen must know what is being offered, much of this knowledge being filtered through appearance: things must look what they are supposed to be. Apples must look like applies. One might say they have to be appled-up; varieties are selected for marketing which have the most apple-like qualities.
A large smile appled his full cheeks as the four sprytes eagerly served themselves from the seeds and thinly sliced fruits.
To become like an apple.
He glanced at me, his cheeks appled in the impish grin I was learning to recognise as the clever under-side of his broad and gentle smile.
She smiled, and her cheeks appled up and her teeth were big and flat and her mouth was wide and spacious like an open invitation.
To collect fir-cones.
Of a flower bud or vegetable (especially a root vegetable): to grow into the shape of an apple.
As for Scolymus [possibly type of artichoke?], it differeth from the reſt of theſe Thiſtles herein, That the root, if it be ſodden, it is good to be eaten: beſides, it hath a ſtraunge nature, for all the ſort of them during the Summer throughout, never reſt and give over, but either they floure, or they apple, or els be readie to bring foorth fruit: […]
To Pome or Apple, is ſaid of the Heads of Artichokes vvhen they grovv round, and full ſhaped as an Apple. It is ſaid alſo of Lettuce, &c.
name
Nickname for New York City: a major city in New York, United States; more commonly in the form the Big Apple.
A female given name from English.
A surname.