The Collaborative International Dictionary
Maple \Ma"ple\ (m[=a]"p'l), n. [AS. mapolder, mapulder, mapol; akin to Icel. m["o]purr; cf. OHG. mazzaltra, mazzoltra, G. massholder.] (Bot.) A tree of the genus Acer, including about fifty species. Acer saccharinum is the rock maple, or sugar maple, from the sap of which sugar is made, in the United States, in great quantities, by evaporation; the red maple or swamp maple is Acer rubrum; the silver maple, Acer dasycarpum, having fruit wooly when young; the striped maple, Acer Pennsylvanium, called also moosewood. The common maple of Europe is Acer campestre, the sycamore maple is Acer Pseudo-platanus, and the Norway maple is Acer platanoides.
Note: Maple is much used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound; as, maple tree, maple leaf, etc.
Bird's-eye maple, Curled maple, varieties of the wood of the rock maple, in which a beautiful lustrous grain is produced by the sinuous course of the fibers.
Maple honey, Maple molasses, Maple syrup, or Maple sirup, maple sap boiled to the consistency of molasses.
Maple sugar, sugar obtained from the sap of the sugar maple by evaporation.
Wiktionary
n. The sugar maple, ''Acer saccharum''.
WordNet
n. maple of eastern and central North America having 3- to 5-lobed leaves and hard close-grained wood much used for cabinet work especially the curly-grained form; sap is chief source of maple syrup and maple sugar; many subspecies [syn: sugar maple, Acer saccharum]
Usage examples of "rock maple".
He didn't say nothin, but when I went over to the stove to check on the cabbage - I was makin a boiled dinner that night, I remember like it was yesterday - he got a chunk of rock maple out of the woodbox and whacked me in the small of the back with it.
Two asymmetrical structures wound up into different parts of the mighty rock maple tree: a substantial section of two additional stories, and a slimmer but taller one that had a tiny fourth-floor meditation chamber.
He also told me that our little pet here is the best specimen of rock maple he has ever seen outside Nippon.
On the bench by Xia I saw Gwen's small case, a package containing a wig, a rock maple in bonsai, and a package not familiar to me but self-explained by its Sears Montgomery wrapping.
He picked out the rock maple, excellent firewood but tough cutting.