cherry-picker, n.
Brit. /ˈtʃɛriˌpɪkə/, U.S. /ˈtʃɛriˌpɪkər/
[‹ cherry n. + picker n.1 Compare earlier cherry-picking n.
With sense 1 compare cherry-breeches n. at cherry n. Compounds 3 and see also quot. 1865 1.]
1. slang. In pl. = cherry-breeches n. at cherry n. Compounds 3. Cf. also cherub n. 3e.
| 1865 N. & Q. (3rd Ser.) 7 49/1, I send a list of the ‘Sobriquets of Regiments’ as given some time since in a country newspaper... 11th Hussars—Cherubims and Cherry Pickers, having had some men taken while on out-post duty in a fruit garden in Spain. 1928 Daily Express 27 Mar. 10/6 Those crimson overalls of the ‘Cherry-pickers’..were really a kind of wedding present from the Prince Consort. 2000 Western Daily Press (Bristol) (Nexis) 11 Apr. 10 The King's Royal Hussars—known as the Cherry Pickers for their distinctive crimson trousers and hat—were hailed as saviours by Albanians threatened by Serbs. |
2. A person who harvests cherries.
| 1890 Harper's Mag. 81 615/2 She went to the window, and had to look upward to see the cherry-picker. 1920 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 30 377 For example, the cherry pickers of unequal ability should exchange on the basis of quart picked for quart picked. 1956 Times 26 July 18 (caption) Cherry pickers at work in an orchard at Old Shell Farm, Lenham. 2001 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 10 July a2 The harvest of B.C.'s cherry crop was put in jeopardy after cherry pickers walked off the job over wages and working conditions. |
3. colloq. (orig. U.S. Railways slang). A person who selects only the best or the most profitable items, opportunities, etc. Cf. cherry-pick v.
| 1940 Railroad Mag. Apr. 40/2 Cherry picker, switchman, so called because of red lights on switch stands. Also any railroad man who is always figuring on the best jobs and sidestepping undesirable ones (based on the old allusion, ‘life is a bowl of cherries’). 1984 Supermarket News (Nexis) 2 July 16 He urged produce managers..to make shoppers of cherry pickers who, he said, come in mostly for the store's hot weekly specials. 1993 U.S. News & World Rep. 8 Feb. 62/1 The best of cherry pickers make decisions based on individual companies' attributes rather than broad market trends and place big bets on relatively few issues. 1999 Jrnl. Business 72 237 Further, cherry pickers (those who visit a store only to buy items on promotion) are less store-loyal. |
4. orig. U.S. slang. A hydraulic crane or similar device with a platform attached to the end for raising or lowering people, as for overhead work.
| 1945 W. B. Huie Omaha to Okinawa 41 A ‘cherrypicker’ crane. 1961 Flight 80 608/2 The pad rescue team used an armoured personnel carrier and operated a mobile tower or ‘cherry-picker’... The cherry-picker stood by on the pad throughout the final 55 min of the countdown. 1981 J. Monaco How to read Film (ed. 2) ii. 78 The camera crane..is merely a counterweighted version of the ‘cherrypickers’ that telephone company linesmen use to reach the tops of poles. 2001 Equipm. Today Mar. 29 (advt.) It can save thousands of dollars that you would have spent on manlifts, scaffolding or cherry pickers. |