Apple-pie order
excellent or perfect order:
Her desk is always in apple-pie order.
Historical Examples
It was a neat building, with everything in apple-pie order, and no danger of anything; rusting there for want of oil.
Cape Cod Henry D. Thoreau
My striker appears to have put everything in apple-pie order.
Uncle Sam’s Boys as Lieutenants H. Irving Hancock
The Blue Grotto was placed in apple-pie order on the afternoon of the fourteenth of February.
The Princess of the School Angela Brazil
Can he keep things in apple-pie order, and do half a dozen at once?
Farm Ballads Will Carleton
All was in the apple-pie order in which I had left her pretty, luxurious room.
Miss Million’s Maid Bertha Ruck
And he was devoted to his books, which were in apple-pie order.
Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad
You fitted her out in apple-pie order, and she’ll soon be there. ‘
The Lady of the Aroostook William Dean Howells
Well, Jack, I suppose you keep your desk in apple-pie order.
Harper’s Round Table, October 15, 1895 Various
Everything was in apple-pie order, except for the snafu in Arzachel, Crag thought bitterly.
First on the Moon Jeff Sutton
Everything about her is in apple-pie order, and everybody wretched.
The Second Thoughts of An Idle Fellow Jerome K. Jerome
noun
(informal) perfect order or condition
noun phrase
A condition of neatness, correctness, and propriety: Paul keeps the financial records in apple-pie order
Extreme neatness, as in David keeps his financial records in apple-pie order. This term is generally believed to be an English corruption of the French nappes pliées, “neatly folded linen.” [ Early 1600s ]
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