like a ripe plum

English

Prepositional phrase

like a ripe plum

1. (simile) With no effort on one's part.
   • 1877, James Greenwood, Dick Temple, page 195:

     I could pull it off, like a bird, single handed; but with you, in a manner of speaking, always round the corner, and ready to help me with your sage counsel, failure is impossible. She is like a ripe plum hanging on the tree, Billy .

   • 1976 ·, James A. McCracken, Innocents at Sea, page 193:

     If they can bring Round Pond to her knees, the rest of the world will fall like a ripe plum.

   • 1997, Linda Chaikin, The Pirate and His Lady:

     She was like a ripe plum falling into my hand!

   • 2010, Adrienne Basso, How to Seduce a Sinner, page 43:

     "Then you must seek her out! She isn't going to just fall into your lap like a ripe plum, my boy,” the duke insisted.

   • 2013, John Fletcher, A Far Country:

     You said yourself he'd only to wait and the mine would have dropped into his lap like a ripe plum.

Usage notes

Typically used in phrasal verbs such as "fall like a ripe plum" or "drop like a ripe plum"

See also

• low-hanging fruit
• easy pickings

Further reading

• “like a ripe plum”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “like a ripe plum” in Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.