crab apple

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.

Origin of crab apple

First recorded in 1705–15

cqsw, cr, cr., craal, crab, crab apple, crab cactus, crab canon, crab grass, crab louse, crab nebula

If you find a crab-apple on a tree, you may be sure that the tree is a crab-tree.

Mrs Whittelsey's Magazine for Mothers and Daughters |Various
Ecks was executing a series of caricatures illustrating the involution of Hodgkins' face back into a crab-apple.

The Incendiary |W. A. (William Augustine) Leahy
I was in the library alone, and he was with Anne in the garden, when Maggie came into the room with a saucer of crab-apple jelly.

The Confession |Mary Roberts Rinehart
The girl on the bench under the crab-apple tree was beginning to draw herself up proudly.

Sally of Missouri |R. E. Young

You can't get a peach out of a crab-apple, nor a pumpkin out of a watermelon, nor eagles out of ducks' eggs.

Letters of Major Jack Downing, of the Downingville Militia |Seba Smith

crab apple

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