trial balloon
1
6.1
- noun
- /ˈtraɪəl bəˈluːn/
:
propuesta de prueba
- float a trial balloon
Examples
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But I think for now, like it is probably the right trial balloon to at least just make people do one more thing to access some of this stuff.
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His words floated trial balloons about charging people to keep their verified blue check mark accounts and otherwise has just Elon musked all over the place.
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The politician proposed a trial balloon to see how the public would react to the new policy.
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Before finalizing the budget, the team suggested a trial balloon to test voters' support.
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The company launched a trial balloon to gauge interest in their upcoming product line.
How Tentative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The headword combines 'trial' (a test) with 'balloon' whose image of being 'floated' to see a reaction gives a plausible metaphor for testing an idea; a learner who knows both words can partially infer that something is being tried out to gauge response. However the specific conventionalized meaning ('a tentative proposal floated to test reactions') is metaphorical and idiomatic (and relies on a cultural metaphor found in some other languages), so full understanding is not guaranteed without exposure.
Etymology
The idiom trial balloon comes from the image of sending up a balloon as a small trial to see what people think. So, it now means 'an idea floated to test how people react'.