Cherrypicker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A worker who harvests cherries from the trees in an orchard ; a person who selects only the best or most favourable items from a group ; a mobile lift with a raised platform used to reach high work
2. Someone who gathers ripe cherries by hand in farm fields ; a chooser who picks out only the most desirable parts of a set ; a vehicle carrying a movable basket on an arm for reaching elevated places
3. A harvester of cherries in orchards ; an individual who handpicks the choicest options while ignoring the rest ; an aerial lift that raises workers in a bucket to high locations

Etymology: "Cherrypicker" is the closed-up spelling of "cherry picker," and the two share a history: the compound describes someone who selects only the best, most desirable items from a larger group. The image behind it is the harvester's habit of plucking only the ripest cherries from a tree and leaving the rest, a picture that makes the sense of selectivity immediately clear. The same logic gave the word its other senses. A cherry picker is also a mechanical lift, a platform on a boom used to raise workers to high places, named for the way it reaches up into the branches. The compound's parts are plain: "cherry," the fruit, and "picker," one who picks, from the verb "pick." Used of people, the term carries a mild note of disapproval, since cherry-picking evidence or choices is generally seen as unfair.

Synonyms: picker, selector