Meaning of trial-balloon | Babel Free

Definitions

Noun. [C1]

Examples

“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.”

CEFR level