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Meaning & use

hand-picked

adjective·Everyday

Last updated

UK/ˌhænd ˈpɪkt/
US/ˌhænd ˈpɪkt/

Meanings

  1. adjectivebefore a noun

    Chosen individually and carefully by a person for a particular purpose, because of quality or suitability.

    Grammar: Usually comes before the noun: a hand-picked team.

    Patterns

    • hand-picked by someone
    • a hand-picked team

    She joined a hand-picked group of engineers working on the project.

    The restaurant serves hand-picked herbs from its own garden.

    The coach announced a hand-picked squad for the final.

  2. adjectivebefore a noun

    Gathered by human hands rather than by machine, used about crops such as fruit, tea or cotton.

    Grammar: Used about harvests: hand-picked tea leaves.

    Patterns

    • hand-picked fruit

    The farm sells hand-picked strawberries.

    Hand-picked tea leaves cost more than machine-harvested ones.

    These hand-picked olives are sorted on the day they are gathered.

Common combinations

hand-picked team
The director chose a hand-picked team.
hand-picked successor
He named a hand-picked successor before retiring.
hand-picked ingredients
The chef uses only hand-picked ingredients.
hand-picked fruit
Hand-picked fruit bruises less than machine-picked fruit.
personally hand-picked
The guests were personally hand-picked by the host.

Synonyms and how they differ

handpicked
Handpicked is the same word written without the hyphen.
selected
Selected is neutral, while hand-picked stresses personal, careful choice.
cherry-picked
Cherry-picked is often critical, suggesting only the best examples were chosen to suit an argument.
elite
Elite describes a group that is considered the best, not how its members were chosen.

Opposites

randommachine-picked

Word family

hand-pick verb
to choose carefully and individually
hand noun
the part of the body at the end of the arm
pick verb
to choose or gather
handpicking noun
the act of choosing carefully by hand

Commonly confused: hand-picked or cherry-picked?

hand-picked vs cherry-picked

Cherry-picked suggests selecting only the favorable items, often unfairly, whereas hand-picked usually has a positive tone.

Practice

The manager chose each member of the new team personally, so it was a ____ group.

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