I'm so confused... From what I'm able to glean in my usual vast 5 minutes of Googling, any of these are acceptable. Some places seem to imply that a hyphen is suggested when using the verb form, but it's such a slang term and so widely used, I'm thinking that any version will work without being called out by the Grammar Police ;-) Would you all agree? Just a few references: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cherry-pick https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cherry-pick
I think that any of them will suffice, but you left out the one option in your poll that I would have selected...….."None of the above!" ~ Chris
Linguistically, a hyphen is used to indicate a close connection between the two nominals, especially if ambiguity could arise with more than two nominals are present. In time, if the association becomes standard, the two nominals become a compound. Exactly that happened with e-mail —> email.
Lemme ask a different question. Is there any doubt in your mind that if you used any of the three, that anyone would not understand what you were talking about ? I believe everybody would understand exactly what you were talking about, no matter which one you used. Meaning bottom line, any of those are acceptable. Which is precisely what you found out. Different question this time, why would you care if they did ? My point of course is that no matter what you do or say, somebody is going to call it into question. So in the end, who cares if they do - or not ?
Why ask me? I was just thinking of Richard Pryor's campaign platform in "Brewster's Millions". ~ Chris
AMBIGUITY! You want ambiguity? I guess you haven't read too many of the posts on CT, have you! ~ Chris
Well, in Ice Hockey, it's called Cherry Picking! LOL. That's when both teams are in one zone, mainly the attacking zone, and one defensive player within that defensive zone is now in the neutral zone hoping to get the puck for a breakaway!
I used “cherry pick” the other day with my 7 year old grandson as we were choosing between two of the same Parks quarters to go into his Dansco album. He looked at me with a question on his face. So I explained it means we should pick the nicest one, and handed him a magnifying glass to look them over. Then, his face brightens and he says, “Oh, that’s an idiom, like raining cats and dogs!”
Great to hear about your experience with your grandson, @TexAg! That's one of the blessings about being a grandparent...teaching, guiding, encouraging. Steve