Ballon d’essai
trial balloon (def 1).
historical examples
in the autumn of 1916 the newspapers put forth a ballon d’essai.
paris vistas helen davenport gibbons
this is no doubt what is technically known as a ballon d’essai.
punch, or the london charivari, vol. 150, may 10, 1916 various
that was a ballon d’essai, as they call it, and they think it was a very happy one.
royal highness thomas mann
and in the early morning she had sent her note to kitty—a ballon d’essai, despatched in a horror of great fear.
the marriage of william ashe mrs. humphry ward
noun (pl) ballons d’essai (bæˈlõ dɛˈseɪ)
a project or policy put forward experimentally to gauge reactions to it compare trial balloon
Read Also:
- Ballonet
an air or gasbag compartment in a balloon or airship, used to control buoyancy and maintain shape. historical examples the wind blowing against the opening, which faces it, charges the ballonet with air. aeroplanes and dirigibles of war frederick a. talbot the air pump, which should have pumped the ballonet full of air to keep […]
- Ballonne
a broad leap with a battement to the front, side, or back.
- Balloon angioplasty
a method of opening a clogged or narrowed blood vessel in which a small balloon is introduced into the vessel by means of a catheter and then inflated at the site of blockage. balloon angioplasty n. a procedure in which a catheter equipped with a tiny balloon at the tip is inserted into an artery […]
- Balloon barrage
a series of moored balloons, usually strung together and hung with cables, for impeding a low-level attack by enemy aircraft.
- Balloon-berry
strawberry-raspberry.