crab apple

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noun

a small, sour, wild apple.

any of various small, tart, cultivated varieties of apple, used for making jelly and preserves.

any tree bearing such fruit.

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Origin of crab apple

First recorded in 1705–15

Words nearby crab apple

CQB, CQSW, Cr, craal, crab, crab apple, Crabb, Crabbe, crabbed, crabber, crabbing

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use crab apple in a sentence

Leapolitan responded by saying, “hopefully youll [sic] bite into a poison apple.”
Grindr’s Trans Dating Problem|David Levesley|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Apple customers, on the other hand, are used to paying premium for perceived quality.
Lost For Thousands of Strokes: 'Desert Golfing' Is 'Angry Birds' as Modern Art|Alec Kubas-Meyer|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The process of co-opting black music and selling it back to the adoring public in whiteface is as American as apple pie.
The Cultural Crimes of Iggy Azalea|Amy Zimmerman|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Companies like Delta, Apple, and Nike flex their political muscle on behalf of gay rights.
Corporations Are No Longer Silent on LGBT Issues||December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Apple, PetSmart, Wells Fargo, Marriott, and Delta also spoke out.
Corporations Are No Longer Silent on LGBT Issues||December 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This gives to the second volume something of the smell of an apple store-room.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 107, November 3, 1894|Various
Twenty acres of apple trees all in a orchard together, and twenty acres of strawberries set out betwixt and between the rows!
The Bondboy|George W. (George Washington) Ogden
All this while Squinty was chewing on the apple which he had picked up from the ground after he had jumped over the rope.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum
And it did not take Squinty long to learn to jump the rope when there was no apple on the other side.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum
Then Squinty would toss the apple up in the air, off his nose, and catch it as it came down.
Squinty the Comical Pig|Richard Barnum

British Dictionary definitions for crab apple

crab apple

noun

any of several rosaceous trees of the genus Malus that have white, pink, or red flowers and small sour apple-like fruits

the fruit of any of these trees, used to make jam

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012