apple-pie order

American  

noun

1. excellent or perfect order.

   Her desk is always in apple-pie order.

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apple-pie order British  

noun

1. informal perfect order or condition

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apple-pie order Idioms  

1. Extreme neatness, as in David keeps his financial records in apple-pie order. This term is generally believed to be an English corruption of the French nappes pliées, “neatly folded linen.” [Early 1600s]

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Etymology

Origin of apple-pie order

First recorded in 1770–80

Example Sentences

That exertion was easy compared with getting the farm in apple-pie order.

From Architectural Digest • Jun. 9, 2015

With his political credentials in apple-pie order, he was rewarded by the usually cautious critics with an instantaneous rave.

From Time Magazine Archive

This week the corps had virtually every foot of the 1,200-mile North African railway system back in apple-pie order and running on schedule.

From Time Magazine Archive

Everything was going to be in apple-pie order.

From Time Magazine Archive

He was carrying the fighting harness, which was strapped up in apple-pie order according to his own dodges and wrinkles—for, from now on, he was Lancelot’s squire.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White