[The name of the early city beside the Dead Sea, the wickedness and destruction of which are recorded in Gen. xviii.–xix.
The Hebrew form of the name is S’dōm; the Sept. has Σόδομα, the Vulg. Sodoma, neut. pl. and fem. sing.]
1. An extremely wicked or corrupt place.
1649. C. Walker, Relat. & Observ., II. 257. To the prejudice of our other New States-men, and their New erected Sodomes and Spintries at the Mulbury-garden at S. James’s.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk round London, A Tavern, Wks. 1709, III. III. 3. A Tavern is a little Sodom, where as many Vices are daily practic’d, as ever were known in the great one.
1782. J. Brown, Nat. & Revealed Relig., V. iv. 461. How could he dwell in a dead carcase, a Sodom of filthiness?
1899. Westm. Gaz., 11 Sept., 8/1. Two, even in this military Sodom, had the courage to proclaim Dreyfus innocent.
2. Sodom apple. a. Apple of Sodom (see APPLE sb. 3). So † Sodom-fruit. Also U.S., the horse-nettle, Solanum carolinense.
1615. Brathwait, Strappado (1878), 48. See painted Sodom-apples faire to th’ eye, But being tutcht they perish instantly.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 237. They are Sodome Apples, enduring the Eye, not the Touch.
1706. in Phillips (ed. Kersey).
[1736. J. Bancks, Young’s Last Day, 22. Through life we chase, with fond pursuit, What mocks our hope, like Sodom’s fruit.]
1738. M. Green, Spleen, 33. And Sodom-fruit our pains deceives.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North & S., iv. The mocking way in which over-fond wishes are too often fulfilled—Sodom apples as they are.
1905. W. J. Rolfe, Shaks. Sonn., 19. The ashes to which the Sodom-apples of illicit love are turned in the end.
† b. A variety of cider-apple. Obs.
1676. Worlidge, Cider (1691), 212. The Sodome-Apple, or Bloudy Pippin, is a Fruit of more than ordinary dark Colour, and is esteemed a good Apple.
3. Sodom egg-plant (see quot. and cf. 2 a).
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 196/1. S[olanum] Sodomeum, Sodom egg-plant, or apple of Sodom.
