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Trial balloon

//ˌtɹaɪəl bəˈluːn// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small balloon released into the sky to determine the direction and tendency of winds in the upper air before a manned ascent in a larger balloon; a ballon d'essai. historical

    "For many weeks in succession the little trial balloons thrown up to show the course of the wind were driven back upon the shores of France."

  2. 2
    a balloon sent up to test air currents wordnet
  3. 3
    An idea, suggestion, or prospective action, product, etc., offered to an audience or group in order to test whether it generates acceptance or interest. figuratively, idiomatic

    ""The originality of the plan and views of the author [Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent], and, above all, the perfect independence of its execution," are, according to the narrator in the Bulletin, the chief features of this new production; and the summary sketch of it which has been published, is (to use the phraseology of the same writer) "as a kind of trial balloon," launched with the view of seeing how the wind sits for his "great work.""

  4. 4
    a test of public opinion wordnet

Etymology

Calque of French ballon d’essai (“small balloon released into the sky to determine the direction and tendency of winds in the upper air before a manned ascent in a larger balloon; (figuratively) prospective action to test acceptance”): ballon (“balloon”), essai (“trial, try; assay”).

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