low-hanging fruit

noun

low-hang·​ing fruit ˈlō-ˈhaŋ-iŋ- 

: the obvious or easy things that can be most readily done or dealt with in achieving success or making progress toward an objective

Maria and Victor have about three months' living expenses set aside. That's actually pretty good …. But I urged them to do better …. Looking at their monthly expenses, we found a few pieces of low-hanging fruit: Two hundred dollars a month on clothes? I don't think so. Another $155 for hair and manicures? Denied.

—Suze Orman

—often used with pick

As the writers and producers sat down in spring 2007 to draw the outlines of Season 7, they knew, Mr. Gordon said, that most of the low-hanging fruit in the action genre had already been picked.

—Edward Wyatt

When business types talk about picking low-hanging fruit, they don't mean, heaven forbid, doing actual physical labor. They mean finding easy solutions.

—Allan Sloan

Examples of low-hanging fruit in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Plaza Gate, as it’s now known, could be very low-hanging fruit for the feds. —Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 19 Oct. 2025

Grabbing more offensive rebounds is seen as one of the last remaining pieces of low-hanging fruit in the pursuit of efficiency. —Lev Akabas, Sportico.com, 17 Oct. 2025

There is low-hanging fruit where AI can be applied quickly, but society at large will adopt the technology more slowly, according to Clegg. —Tasmin Lockwood, CNBC, 16 Oct. 2025

Bigger-picture stakes: trade relations with the US Sectoral tariffs are relatively low-hanging fruit under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which Trump brokered during his first term and will be under mandatory review next year. —Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Money, 7 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for low-hanging fruit

• irresolute
• reconstitute
• absolute
• arrowroot
• attribute
• bitterroot
• constitute
• convolute
• destitute
• disrepute
• dissolute
• execute