trial balloon
a statement, program, or the like issued publicly as a means of determining reactions in advance: The speech was a trial balloon for a new law.
Origin of trial balloon
1Words Nearby trial balloon
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use trial balloon in a sentence
But it is another thing to watch his own advisers float a trial balloon that he might finally change his story.
How Lance Armstrong Lied to the World (Including Me) | Howard Kurtz | January 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the surreal half-light of a trial-balloon nomination, it is difficult for an individual to come to his own defense.
Chuck Hagel Deserves Fair Hearing for Defense-Secretary Post | John Avlon | December 24, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThe shadow-boxing over the Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense trial balloon has turned ugly—and misleading.
The reply to Greeley was, as noted, a trial balloon, whose purpose was to test the reaction of the public to these alternatives.
Lincoln the Primitive Communicator? What He Can Teach Modern Politicians | Douglas L. Wilson | December 15, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTThat was such an obviously desperate trial balloon late yesterday, when Drudge posted that Romney was considering Condi for veep.
Guess Who Doesn't Care that Condi Is Pro-Choice? | Michael Tomasky | July 13, 2012 | THE DAILY BEAST
British Dictionary definitions for trial balloon
a tentative action or statement designed to test public opinion on a controversial matter: Compare ballon d'essai
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for trial balloon
A small campaign or test designed to gauge public response. The term originally referred to a balloon sent up to determine weather conditions: “The speech on free trade that the candidate delivered last month must have been a trial balloon; the audience reacted with hostility, and he has not mentioned the subject since.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with 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]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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