send up a trial balloon

to suggest something and see how people respond to it; to test public opinion. Mary had an excellent idea, but when we sent up a trial balloon, the response was very negative. Don't start the whole project without sending up a trial balloon.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
LesŁAwa	le-SWAH-vah	Polish
Jennifer	JEN-i-fər (English)	English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish
Ameretat	-	Persian Mythology
Nolan	['nəulən]
Ilona	EE-lo-naw (Hungarian), ee-LO-nah (German), EE-lo-nah (Finnish)	Hungarian, German, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech
Justus	YUWS-tuws (German), JUS-təs (English)	German, Dutch, Late Roman