find out how the land lies



find out/see how the land lies

to get information about a situation before making decisions or taking action I thought I'd better call my mother and see how the land lies before inviting myself home for the weekend. (British & Australian)
See also: find, how, land, lie, out

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
KjerstinSHESH-tin (Swedish)Norwegian, Swedish
Branko-Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Slovak, Macedonian
Winters['wintəz]
Mina['mi:nə]
Itzhak-Hebrew
ZacharyZAK-ə-ree (English)English, Biblical