cherry-picking

verb

present participle of cherry-pick
as in selecting
to decide to accept (someone or something) from a group of possibilities cherry-picked the spacious corner office for his corporate fief

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of cherry-picking Families spent Mother's Day filling buckets and making memories at Dell'Osso Farms in Lathrop, where crowds gathered Sunday for cherry-picking season in the heart of California's top cherry-producing county. — Charlie Lapastora, CBS News, 11 May 2026 Cha chaan tengs grew in popularity, cherry-picking elements from all three restaurants to create a new type of cuisine. — Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 9 Apr. 2026 But most of this research is co-authored by Sikiric, who holds several patents related to BPC-157, and some experts have accused him of cherry-picking evidence. — Dhruv Khullar, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2026 The Justice Department has pushed back on the defense suggestion that Bondi continues to profit from Ballard’s ongoing representation of UnitedHealth Group and accused Mangione’s lawyers of creating such a misimpression by cherry-picking language from her public financial disclosure report. — Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 9 Jan. 2026 Vartkessian renders them neither clinically nor sensationally—a fine line to walk—and cherry-picking details for this review feels grossly reductive, like a thumbnail sketch of a scene of desolation. — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025 Following Democrats’ release, Republicans accused Democrats of cherry-picking the emails, later releasing a tranche of 20,000 pages of documents both sides received from the Epstein estate last week. — Emily Brooks, The Hill, 13 Nov. 2025 More than 85 scientists denounced the report, accusing officials of cherry-picking facts and figures to allow for the administration’s fossil fuel ambitions. — Solcyré Burga, Time, 23 Sep. 2025 Sisters Mackinley and Taylor Hill are taking inspiration from their own lives and cherry-picking a collection of juicy new jewelry for their debut line, Stone Fruit. — Julia Teti, Footwear News, 16 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cherry-picking
  1. selecting
  2. choosing
  3. picking
Verb
  • These are anonymous and set up similar to a dating profile, with users selecting their preference in letter types (short and casual versus longer and conversational) and answering one of a handful of prompts to get a conversation starting.
    — Greta Cross, USA Today, 21 Aug. 2026
  • Operators increasingly weigh automation, operating costs and pilot workload when selecting aircraft.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of selecting
Verb
  • Reports had previously spread about Flick choosing another La Masia pearl in Jordi Pesquer.
    — Tom Sanderson, Forbes.com, 23 Aug. 2026
  • Mourinho kept him on until the 79th minute, choosing instead to replace Bernardo and Guler in the 63rd minute, even though both appeared to have more energy left in the tank than Bellingham.
    — Guillermo Rai, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2026
Definition of choosing
Verb
  • Another help has been picking different parts of the ball to hit, Stott said — aiming toward the bottom when facing sinkerballers and the top against four-seam throwers.
    — Charlotte Varnes, New York Times, 21 Aug. 2026
  • The idea is that as an operator mimes picking up a pile of rocks, the arm would generate a force in response, as if the operator could feel the heaviness of the rocks, confirming that the excavator is indeed picking them up.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of picking

Browse Nearby Words

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Cite this Entry

“Cherry-picking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cherry-picking. Accessed 27 Aug. 2026.

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