apple-tree
1. A tree which bears apples.
| a 1100 in Wright Voc. 79/2 Malus, æpeltre. a 1300 Cursor M. 1367 Pepins..quilk a þe appel tre he nam. 1447 Lyvys of Seyntys 54 b/2 He that..hys appyltre Eche day watryth. c 1525 Skelton Replyc. 157 Suche apple tre, suche frute. 1805 Southey Madoc in W. xiv. Wks. V. 105 The crooked apple-trees, Grey with their fleecy moss and misseltoe. |
2. In Australia applied to various indigenous trees, esp. to a species of Eucalyptus (= apple-gum: see apple n. B. II), and to another myrtaceous tree, Angophora subvelutina.
| 1801 in Hist. Rec. Australia (1915) III. 414 The Timber at the back blue-gum and apple trees. 1820 J. Oxley Jrnl. Exped. N.S. Wales 187 That species of eucalyptus which is vulgarly called the apple tree. 1885 Mrs. C. Praed Head Station I. iv. 60 A giant eucalyptus of the kind called ‘appletree’. 1885 Spons' Mechanics' Own Bk. 127 Apple (Australian) (Angophora subvelutina). The so-called apple-tree of Queensland yields planks 20–30 in. in diameter. |