apple-pie
[apple B. 3 c.]
A pie made with apples; transf. applied to the Willow-herb from the odour of the flowers and young shoots.
| 1590 Greene Arcadia (1616) 67 Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 163, I made shift to get down a bit of apple-pye, and a little custard. 1861 Mrs. Lankester Wild Fl. 52 Willow-herb..Applepie Plant. |
apple-pie bed: a bed in which, as a practical joke, the sheets are so folded that a person cannot get his legs down; apple-pie order: complete, thorough order; also ellipt. [It has been suggested that this may be a corruption of ‘Cap-a-pie order,’ but no instance of the latter phrase appears.]
| 1781 J. Woodforde Diary (1924) I. 302 Had but an indifferent night of Sleep, Mrs. Davie and Nancy made me up an Apple Pye Bed last night. 1840 New Monthly Mag. LVIII. 246 He..began to fancy that the bed was too small for him, when..little Oxtowne..told him..‘it was only an apple-pie’. 1917 A. Waugh Loom of Youth iv. vii. 308 His dormitory made him apple-pie beds. |
| 1780 T. Pasley Private Sea Jrnls. 12 May (1931) 87 Their Persons Clean and in apple-Pie order on Sundays. 1813 Scott in Lockhart Life IV. (1839) 131 The children's garden is in apple-pie order. 1835 Marryat Jac. Faithf. viii. 29 Put the craft a little into apple-pie order. 1898 W. Raleigh Let. 13 Sept. (1926) I. 208 We had an artist in the back room..so I could not leave it as apple-pie as I should have liked. 1904 J. London Sea-Wolf xi. 88 The boat-pullers and steerers have..put their boats in apple-pie order. |
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▸ (as) American as apple pie (orig. U.S.): typically or traditionally American; intrinsic to or emblematic of American culture.
| 1924 Gettysburg (Pa.) Times 2 June 6/4 (advt.) New Lestz Suits that are as American as apple pie. 1966T. Lehrer National Brotherhood Week (song) in Tom Lehrer's Second Song Bk. (1968) 10 All of my folks hate all of your folks, It's American as apple pie. 1976 Newsweek (Nexis) 17 May 14 Baseball is as American as apple pie, so it was embarrassing when Taiwan Little League teams outslugged, outpitched and outfielded the best American teams. 1986 Listener 17 Apr. 22/3 The ‘frequent-flyer bonus scheme’ is as American as apple-pie. 2004 M. Torgoff Can't find my Way Home 1 Drugs have become as American as apple pie. |
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▸ attrib. Embodying traditional values (esp. motherhood and domesticity) in a positive manner; simple and wholesome, esp. in a way regarded as exemplifying particularly American ideals (cf. motherhood and apple-pie n. at motherhood n. 1d); (hence also) thoroughly or typically American, esp. in apple-pie American (cf. as American as apple pie at Phrases).
In later use freq. ironic or with pejorative connotations.
| 1960 Los Angeles Times 4 Jan. iii. 12/7 A ‘look’ is every woman's aim... ‘For Ginger Rogers, it's an apple-pie American look.’ 1962 John o' London's 19 Apr. 371/2 Likeable beer-drinking chaps..with resplendent memories of apple-pie mums. 1963 Time 14 June 54/2 Viewers like his apple-pie accent. 1978 Washington Post 1 Mar. a22/5 There were some who were irritated by his old-fashioned, apple-pie patriotism. 1988 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 5 July 9/1 The proud mother basking in the glow of her apple-pie family. 1991 Maclean's 17 June 56/3 His apple-pie sincerity seems misplaced. 1995 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 2 Dec. b1 The developers intend to build a kind of apple-pie American paradise a la Norman Rockwell on 49,000 acres of prime land a few miles from Disney World. |