test the water

test the water/waters

to try to discover what people think about an idea before you do anything about it, or to try to discover what a situation is really like before you become very involved in it I mentioned my idea to a couple of friends as a way of testing the water and they were very enthusiastic about it. Perhaps you should go to a couple of meetings to test the waters before you decide whether to join the club.

See stand the test of time

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Tai	-	Chinese
GalİP	-	Turkish
SÌNeag	-	Scottish
Abul-Fazl	-	Arabic
Nadine	[nei'di:n]
Kotone	ko-to-ne	Japanese