trial balloon

a test of someone's or the public's reaction. It was just a trial balloon, and it didn't work. The trial balloon was a great success.

trial balloon

An idea or plan advanced tentatively to test public reaction, as in Let's send up a trial balloon for this new program before we commit ourselves. This expression alludes to sending up balloons to test weather conditions. [c. 1930]

trial balloon

n. a test of someone’s reaction. It was just a trial balloon, and it didn’t work.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Blaanid	-	Manx
Aca	-	Serbian, Macedonian
Beatrice	be-ah-TREE-che (Italian), BEE-ə-tris (English), BEE-tris (English), BE-ah-trees (Swedish), be-ah-TREES (Swedish)	Italian, English, Swedish
Sherman	SHUR-mən	English
Mirthe	MIR-tə	Dutch
Vazha	-	Georgian