trial balloon

1. 1.

   a test of public opinion

   Broadertrial
2. 2.

   a balloon sent up to test air currents

   Broaderballoon

Questions about trial balloon

What does trial balloon mean?

trial balloon means "a test of public opinion". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is trial balloon a common word?

trial balloon is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.