Trial-balloon

Full definition of trial-balloon

Noun

1. Alternative form of en
• 1832, The Canada Corn Trade, 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.
• 1855, Bellot. His Adventures and Death in the Arctic Regions., 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.
• 1867, Review VI. 1. Die Inhalations-Therapie in Krankheiten der Respirations-Organe, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der durch Laryngscop ermittelten Krankheiten des Kehlkopfs. Von Dr. Georg Lewin. Mit 25 Holzschnitten Zweite Auflage. Berlin. 1865. Pp. 506; mit Anhang, pp. 37. ..., 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.