big apple, the

Slang definitions & phrases for big apple, the

Big Apple, the

noun phrase
  1. New York City •Popularized in the 1970s as a nickname: New York is the Big Apple/ young musicians storming into the Apple (1909+)
  2. A jitterbug dance of the mid1930s

[apparently fr jazz musicians' term apple for a city, esp a city in the North; the dance may be so called from a Harlem club of the same name]