mountain apple

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmaʊntən ˈæpəl/

mountain apple (plural mountain apples)

1. (especially Hawaii) The Malay apple or pommerac (Syzygium malaccense).
   • 1861, chapter XXV, in Ira Jones, Life and Adventure in the South Pacific‎, New York: Harper & Brothers, page 324:

     Fresh breezes sweep down the mountains, laden with the perfumes of the orange, the banana, pine-apple, and mountain apple trees […]

   • 1936 January, Casey D. Miller, Katherine Bazore, Ruth C. Robbins, Some Fruits of Hawaii: Their Composition, Nutritive Value and Use (Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins; 77)‎, University of Hawaii, United States Department of Agriculture, page 55:

     The mountain apple is very refreshing to eat because of the large amount of water present and the delicate flavor. It is most frequently eaten out of hand, but may be cut up and used in salads and cocktails.

   • 2014, Derek Kurisu, “Honoring the Family of KTA Super Stores”, in Aiko Yamashiro, Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, editors, The Value of Hawaiʻi 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions‎, Biographical Research Center, →ISBN, page 78:

     Mountain apple, or ʻōhi'a ʻai, was one of the twenty-four “canoe plants” brought to Hawaiʻi by Polynesian voyagers over 1,500 years ago.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see mountain,‎ apple.