1849 Godey's Lady's Bk. Nov. 320 (heading) Recollections of a grown-up schoolboy... Cherry-pickings, robbing orchards and love-making.

1868 All Year Round 6 June 614/2 Cherry picking was another delight, increased by the danger of falling from steps and ladders.

1899 Atlantic Monthly May 665/2 When the young people refuse to buy, he tells William and Rose, his children, to invite them to a picnic and cherry-picking.

1920 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 28 196 Whereas cherry picking, which used to command a piece rate of 1 cent per pound, rose to 3 and 4 cents in 1919.

1963 G. D. Spindler Educ. & Culture iii. xviii. 369 The typical pattern is to work hard at cherry-picking or greens-gathering for a few weeks. When that is finished there is money for food and a few bottles of beer for awhile.

1999 S. Stewart Sharking ii. 41 I've decided to go and do cherry-picking on a kibbutz in Israel.

1965 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 11 July 13 (advt.) The Great Discount Delusion..reveals the gimmicks some discounters use—among them: phony price tickets, short weight,..‘creaming and cherry-picking’, ‘baiting-and-switching’.

1979 Business Week 12 Mar. 125/1 Guardian's cherry-picking of high-volume business can only carry you so far.

1988 Austral. Financial Rev. 9 Mar. 12/4 The drive has included..measures to stop former abuses such as cherry picking (looting superannuation lump sums for the benefit of few people).

1994 Denver Post 6 Feb. e2/2 This provision would prevent the so-called ‘cherry-picking’ that..high-paid lobbyists..use to scare lawmakers.

2000 Pensions Managem. Apr. 8/1 To prevent cherry-picking, stakeholder schemes cannot insist that contributions are paid in a certain way.

1981 Guardian Weekly 8 Nov. 20/5 He was still in strong voice as a cherry-picking crane lifted him low out over the audience and later as fireworks began to explode overhead.

1998 Review (Rio Tinto plc) Sept. 14/2 Palabora is working with drill manufacturers to develop a high reach ‘cherry picking’ type rig that can drill and charge up holes with explosives by remote control.

1982 Legal Times 13 Dec. 31/3 Thus, defendants contended, aggregate prices and costs were controlling, and a ‘cherry-picking’ analysis of Mid-Atlantic's prices was inappropriate.

1995 Guardian 22 July (Outlook section) 35/3 Cherry-picking companies could demand that people either reveal existing tests or even have genetic tests in order to benefit from low life and health insurance premiums.

1999 Irish Times (Nexis) 29 Apr. 17 Competition has centred on parcel post delivery and express letter services, with An Post vulnerable to ‘cherry-picking’ companies, targeting the lucrative urban centres and ignoring costly rural services.