low-hanging fruit
2 antonyms for low-hanging fruit — opposites grouped by meaning.
Noun — The easiest tasks, targets or gains available, achieved with the least effort. In business it usually means the quick wins a team goes after before tackling anything hard.
Antonyms
heavy lifting
hard yards
How to use low-hanging fruit
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
pick the low-hanging fruit
plenty of low-hanging fruit
beyond the low-hanging fruit
low-hanging fruit first
Business jargon, now so overused that it is a standard entry on office cliche lists. It is uncountable, so there is no plural: say plenty of low-hanging fruit, not low-hanging fruits.
Etymology
A metaphor from harvesting: the fruit within arm's reach is picked first because it needs no ladder.
Full origin of low-hanging fruit →Frequently asked questions
Is low-hanging fruit a compliment or a criticism?
It depends on the framing. Going after low-hanging fruit is sensible prioritisation when resources are tight, but describing someone's results as only low-hanging fruit suggests they took the easy option and left the real problems untouched.
Is the plural "low-hanging fruits"?
No. Fruit is uncountable in this idiom, so the phrase stays the same whether you mean one easy task or twenty. Say there is a lot of low-hanging fruit.
