low-hanging fruit

noun

1. the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
2. a course of action that can be undertaken quickly and easily as part of a wider range of changes or solutions to a problem

   first pick the low-hanging fruit

3. a suitable company to buy as a straightforward investment opportunity

Example Sentences

More low hanging fruit: the $37 Russ-as-Che-Guevara t-shirts available on his website.

From The Daily Beast

For one thing, it's possible the low-hanging fruit—the companies for whom investor activism is most successful—has been picked.

From The Daily Beast

As Cosgrove notes, infection control is one of the areas where there seems to be "low hanging fruit" in the health care system.

From The Daily Beast

Even in a capital wracked by partisan fighting, this should be low-hanging fruit.

From The Daily Beast

When it comes to the players who are playing, you just pluck the low-hanging fruit.

From The Daily Beast

Yet when he turned the corner she was standing with her back towards him, and stooping to gather the low-hanging fruit.

From Project Gutenberg

When an MBA said “low-hanging fruit,” he meant “easy pickings,” something that could and should be snatched with minimal effort.

From Project Gutenberg

But real low-hanging fruit ripens last, and should be therefore picked as late as possible.

From Project Gutenberg

More About Low Hanging Fruit

What does low-hanging fruit mean?

Low-hanging fruit refers to a task that is easy to accomplish.

Low-hanging fruit can refer to actual fruit on trees that hangs from low branches, as in We let the kids pick the low-hanging fruit while we climbed the ladder to pick the ones higher up.

Most of the time, though, low-hanging fruit is used figuratively to mean a job that is easy to do or a goal that is easy to complete, as in Congress began the session by renaming the federal building after a national hero, a low-hanging fruit that received no opposition from anyone.

Low-hanging fruit is often used to compare a relatively easy task to a harder or more stressful task that also must be done. When you choose to do something easy, like making your bed, over something harder, like doing your homework, you can say you are “picking the low-hanging fruit.”

Example: The company saw an Asian expansion as low-hanging fruit because it wouldn’t face any competition in that market.

Where does low-hanging fruit come from?

The first records of the literal sense of low-hanging fruit come from 1859 in Adam Bede, a novel by George Eliot. The first records of the figurative sense of low-hanging fruit come from 1909, although it would begin to become especially popular during the 1980s. The figurative usage alludes to the fact that picking fruit from low branches is almost always much easier and faster than picking fruit from branches higher up.

The term low-hanging fruit is particularly common in the business world. It is often used to refer to such things as groups of customers that are easy to persuade or investors that are already interested in a business. A person or company that is going after the low-hanging fruit is focusing on easy tasks or goals first before worrying about difficult problems or goals that will take a lot of effort.

Did you know … ?

What are some synonyms for low-hanging fruit?

• snap
• cinch
• breeze
• cakewalk
• child’s play

What are some words that share a root or word element with low-hanging fruit? 

• low
• hanging
• fruit

What are some words that often get used in discussing low-hanging fruit?

• task
• mission
• goal
• easy
• fast

How is low-hanging fruit used in real life?

Low-hanging fruit is a common phrase that refers to things that are easy to do.

Trump's new National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, has the chance to put U.S.-Ukraine relations on a better trajectory next week in prepping the bilat between Trump & Zelensky. This is low-hanging fruit. Grab it !

— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) September 20, 2019

Not sure why more offenses don't rush to snap ball when defensive players celebrate. Easy timeout or penalty. Such low-hanging fruit.

— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) November 21, 2014

Lessons I learned in 30 years of programming: 1) It takes longer than you think. 2) The low-hanging fruit of productivity is deleting code.

— Paolo Perrotta (@nusco) May 7, 2015

Try using low-hanging fruit!

Is low-hanging fruit used correctly in the following sentence?

He is always looking for the easy way out so he will never miss the low-hanging fruit.