Maple

English Meaning

A tree of the genus Acer, including about fifty species. A. 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 or swamp maple is A. rubrum; the silver maple, A. dasycarpum, having fruit wooly when young; the striped maple, A. Pennsylvanium, called also moosewood. The common maple of Europe is A. campestre, the sycamore maple is A. Pseudo-platanus, and the Norway maple is A. platanoides.

1. Any of numerous deciduous trees or shrubs of the genus Acer of the North Temperate Zone, having opposite, usually palmate leaves and long-winged fruits borne in pairs.
2. The wood of any of these trees, especially the hard, close-grained wood of the sugar maple, often used for furniture and flooring.
3. The flavor of the concentrated sap of the sugar maple.