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
Bahiga	-	Arabic
PÁDraig	PAW-drig, PAW-rig	Irish
Fotios	-	Greek
Katica	-	Croatian, Slovene, Hungarian
Philip	['filip]
Ormazd	OR-mazd	Persian Mythology