low hanging fruit
low hanging fruit
Meaning
- a goal that can be easily reached
- something that is easy to take advantage of
- a company that would be easy to buy up as an investment opportunity
Example Sentences
- There are a lot of things that need to be completed for our project. I would suggest that we start with the low hanging fruit.
- For the new weight loss drug, the university girls in town were low hanging fruit. They are always looking for ways to lose weight.
- That company is low hanging fruit. They are in financial difficulty.
Origin
Phrases like “fruit low hung” and “fruit hanging low” have been used since the 1600s. The phrase “low hanging fruit” first appeared in print in 1968. It was used in an article in The Guardian newspaper.
“His work is so appealing to me that I feel almost bashful praising it… He is gentle and stoic and simple, his rare images are picked aptly, easily, like low-hanging fruit, and though he appears to move short distances slowly he really moves far and fast.”
Fruit that hang at the bottom of the tree are easy to reach. This makes it an easy task to complete and is usually the one that you attempt first. You would then move on to more difficult tasks.
Similar Idioms
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Share your opinions4 Opinions
I was introduced to the term “low hanging fruit” in the past two or three years when I first heard the song about lynchings. I cringe and have a visceral reaction when I hear it. I feel sickened and sad.
I have noticed it’s recently frequently being used in business, news forecasts, sports news, ect as a new trendy descriptive phrase. I was going to protest its use, but in my research I have learned it may have originated in 1600s in agriculture as in “easy pickings.” It’s used in business sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. Its use is on the rise. Trendy.
I will deal with it.
‒ CKHenderson September 11, 2026
Billie Holiday’s song 🎵 also alerts my soul ! Strange fruit –Lynching. Low hanging fruits are related with monthly Picnics ! Oh how the times ⏲️ have changed, or have they ? Correct Education is a must !
‒ Patricia Towers July 4, 2023
I first read the phrase in The Color Purple—lynchings. Billie Holiday song—Strange Fruit—Lynchings. I am, perhaps mixing up the phrases.
‒ Judith Elizabeth Catterall April 22, 2021
I remember reading about, “low lying fruit” in Aesop’s Fables back in grade school. And of course there would be a moral to his story.
‒ John Nicky July 27, 2020