bitter apple
Americannoun
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of bitter apple
First recorded in 1860–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“You can also use something like bitter apple spray on the entire length of the lights, and that will deter any chewing.”
From Slate
But then this last one, and I want to think about it just for a little bit longer: “shining aubergine, black-skinned / beauty, bitter apple.”
From The New Yorker
Except that the survey was in Korea, the homeland of bitter Apple rival Samsung. iPhones have few failures, Korean respondents said, with only 17% having any issue with their Apple smartphone, while 31% reported issues with Android-based Samsung phones.
From The Guardian
Bitter apple, Bitter cucumber, Bitter gourd.
From Project Gutenberg
Having taken nothing since morning but a little raspberry vinegar, with which Mr. Carlile supplied me, I began to feel weak, but nothing was offered me except a little warm water, for which I asked, and this, with a very hard and bitter apple, constituted my supper.
From Project Gutenberg
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.