crab apple

noun

: any of various wild or cultivated trees (genus Malus) that are cultivars or relatives of the cultivated apple and that produce small sour fruit

also : the fruit

Examples of crab apple in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Fruit Trees This category includes crab apples and mulberry trees as well as orchard trees. —Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 7 May 2025

In spring the central walkway becomes a riot of flowering crab apples and bare shoulders (I had been told), but now the kiosks were shuttered, the trees skeletal, the paths plowed but untrodden. —Julia Whelan Emma Kehlbeck Jeremy McLennan, New York Times, 2 May 2025

Soon, the crab apple trees in my front and back yards will blossom into stunning pink clouds. —Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 7 Apr. 2025

The kumquat is to the orange what the crab apple is to the apple – a small, tart version of the larger fruit. —Joshua Siskin, Orange County Register, 6 Feb. 2025

Word History

Etymology

crab entry 3

First Known Use

1680, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for crab apple

• appal
• chapel
• dapple
• grapple
• pineapple

Kids Definition

crab apple

noun

: any of several cultivated or wild trees related to the apple tree and producing a small sour fruit

also : the fruit