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
alt. A North American hardwood, ''Acer saccharum'', famed as the source of maple sugar and maple flavoring. n. A North American hardwood, ''Acer saccharum'', famed as the source of maple sugar and maple flavoring.
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: rock maple, Acer saccharum]
Usage examples of "sugar maple".
The profits of the Sugar Maple do not arise from the sugar alone: it affords good molasses and excellent vinegar.
Macurdy sat Hog in the bogus shelter of a roadside sugar maple, watching a plunder column pass.
He had turned away and was looking out the window toward the park, even though the dense leafy boughs of a sugar maple blocked his view.
Who knows, maybe the red spruce and sugar maple could make comebacks.
Past the chicken coop, the water pump, the clotheslines, and the tool shed, past a sugar maple that would turn bright red in October.
Then he fixed his attention on a big sugar maple which grew at the edge of the lawn.
He pulled into the only slot available on the lot, by a large sugar maple just starting to turn fall colors.