Meaning of trial balloon | Babel Free

Definitions

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
2. 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

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“A small trial balloon was then sent up and its course followed by a thousand eyes. In one bound it flew against the bell-tower of the town-house, then rose again and made directly for the Northern Ocean.”

“In the same year the brothers Montgolfier were carrying on their experiments at Annonay. Their first serviceable balloon—the outcome of various attempts—was made of linen and lined with paper. [...] The excitement caused by the new-fangled machine soon spread⟳ to Paris, where many scientific men turned their attention to the subject. Among them was M. [Jacques] Charles, who was led to experiment⟳ with hydrogen. He manufactured a small trial balloon of silk, which he covered with an elastic varnish, and he had the satisfaction of seeing it rise⟳ up in the air, until it disappeared in the clouds.”

“That day, in order⟳ to get⟳ a little recreation, Pierre drove out to the village of Vorontsovo to see⟳ a great air-balloon, which Leppich had built for the destruction of the enemy, and a trial balloon, which was to be let⟳ off on the next day.”

“Whenever a balloon ascension is to take⟳ place⟳ M. Rampont, at the Hôtel des Postes, hastens to send⟳ off a few trial balloons for the purpose of ascertaining the course of the wind. When the direction is unfavorable the departure is postponed; on the contrary when it is favorable, orders are sent immediately to the station at which the ascension is to take⟳ place⟳.”

“"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⟳."”

“If any stronger presumption that his brochure is a trial-balloon of the present⟳ ministry be required, it will be found in the pages 19 and 20, wherein Sir Howard Douglas and Mr. Bliss receive⟳ a full volley of foul-mouthed Billingsgate.”

“Hints—trial-balloons he [Joseph René Bellot] called them—are adroitly thrown out in the newspapers, and one or two articles from his pen appear⟳ in the periodicals. When the public mind⟳, as he judges, is prepared, he addresses the Minister officially on the subject.”

“The other two productions of the press⟳ quoted at the commencement are of the fugitive pamphlet sort⟳, to be considered as a sort⟳ of literary trial-balloons, thrown out to see⟳ if the current of opinion sets fairly for their makers to follow⟳ on with larger, or, as sometimes happens, to attract⟳ the public gaze to the makers of the new literary bubbles.”

“Possibly the story is given out tentatively by way of testing the public mind⟳—as a species of "trial balloon," if we may borrow a French term for this sort⟳ of experimentation with public sentiment.”

“Congressman Cordell Hull, onetime Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, last⟳ week issued a statement, as a sort⟳ of trial balloon no doubt⟳, linking the high tariff with failure to get⟳ 100 cents on a dollar in payment on War debts from Europe.”

“If the Board⟳ had the right which it claims to divest the Court of its jurisdiction, then the Board's orders would become⟳ nothing more than trial balloons. If they met with no opposition they would be enforced. If the respondent had the means and the inclination to oppose⟳ the Board⟳, and set⟳ up meritorious defenses, the cases could be taken back for more careful consideration.”

“Mr. Chairman, is there any truth at all to the growing suspicion that you people are sending up a trial balloon with these rumors of the President's death? To see⟳ just how much political mileage there is in it, if any?”

“Publishers frequently used subscription announcements as trial balloons. If they failed to elicit much response, they would drop the project, having lost only a pittance for the publication of the prospectus or having gained a ransom from some competitor who took them seriously.”

“No one in the day-to-day hustle of e-commerce talks very seriously about the kind of trial-balloon gimmicks that claim⟳ to revolutionise the last⟳ mile: deliveries by drones and parachutes and autonomous vehicles, zeppelin warehouses, robots on sidewalks.”

CEFR level