cherry-pick
1. To choose something very carefully to ensure that the best option is chosen, perhaps through means that provide one an unfair advantage or from a selection that others do not have ready access to. I can't believe he left the company and then cherry-picked the best employee in my department! Yes, you will get to cherry-pick all the equipment that goes into your studio. Good luck getting through to him with actual facts—he just cherry-picks information that omits or ignores anything that goes against his own beliefs.
2. slang In sports such as basketball and soccer (football), to position oneself away from the current play on one's opponent's defensive end for an opportunity to receive the ball and score an easy basket or goal. We might not have gotten scored on if you had actually been playing defense instead of cherry-picking! Keep an eye on that forward—when he's out there, he tends to get behind the defense and cherry-pick. Any player on a team of mine needs to be defensively responsible, so I don't want to see any of you guys cherry-picking out there.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.