like shooting fish in a barrel

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like shooting fish in a barrel

1. (simile) Extremely easy; sometimes with a connotation of triumph but at other times with a connotation of being meaningless and unsatisfying.

   Synonyms: easy as pie, like taking candy from a baby; see also Thesaurus:easy

   • 1982 April 2, Associated Press, “Entrants Gamble For Chance To Stalk Big Game”, in The Dispatch, USA, retrieved 18 July 2012, page 20:

     Opponents contend that the lumbering creatures are so easy to shoot that a moose hunt is a slaughter, not a sport. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel," they say.

   • 2003 October 24, Ken Johnson, “Art in Review: Mary Ellen Mark—‘Twins’”, in New York Times, retrieved 18 July 2012:

     For a photographer, shooting twins at the annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, must be like shooting fish in a barrel.

   • 2005 March 29, John S. Doyle, “We're all sport crazy... but for all the wrong sports”, in Irish Independent, Ireland, retrieved 18 July 2012:

     Standing on those long straight roads with the speed detection gun was like shooting fish in a barrel, somebody said.