low-hanging fruit

See also: low hanging fruit

English

A child picking the low-hanging fruit

Alternative forms

• low hanging fruit

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

low-hanging fruit (plural low-hanging fruits)

1. (idiomatic) Easily obtained gains; what can be obtained by readily available means.

   Antonym: high-hanging fruit

   • 2004, Sarah James with Torbjörn Lahti, The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to, page 201:

     Low-hanging fruits are those actions that garner early agreement and that are obtainable in the short run.

   • 2007, Nick Johnstone, Environmental Policy and Corporate Behaviour, page 97:

     the low-hanging fruit are picked first

   • 2008, Thomas F. Schaller, Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South, page 166:

     But, Florida aside, the low-hanging fruit is not in Dixie.

   • 2010, Dany Shukran, Best Practices: On Conducting International Meetings, page 18:

     But, we want to identify, the low-hanging fruit that we can harvest this year.

   • 2024 June 26, Paul Clifton, “Rail freight's agenda to survive and thrive”, in RAIL, number 1012, page 41:

     Meanwhile, it is nearly a year and a half since the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) came up with a lower-cost plan to electrify key freight routes, with added benefits for passenger services. The link to London Gateway could be wired for £8 million, which it called the "the lowest of low-hanging fruit".

Translations

Translations

• Dutch: laaghangend fruit
• German: leichte Beute f
• Greek: ώριμο φρούτο (órimo froúto)
• Spanish: un mango bajito m (Venezuela)

See also

• easy pickings
• easy money
• like a ripe plum

Further reading

• “Low-hanging fruit: the history”, by Mark Liberman of Language Log (2022-08-03)