raise the flag and see who salutes

English

Alternative forms

• send it up the flagpole and see who salutes

Pronunciation

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Verb

raise the flag and see who salutes (third-person singular simple present raises the flag and sees who salutes, present participle raising the flag and seeing who salutes, simple past raised the flag and saw who saluted, past participle raised the flag and seen who saluted)

1. (idiomatic) To float an idea, (or otherwise do some action) to see what response or controversy (if any) it generates, usually as a preliminary step.
   • 1996, Jo Ann Oravec, Virtual individuals, virtual groups: Human Dimensions of Groupware and Computer Networking, page 312:

     Much of the discourse on and the spirit of group interaction have an improvisational flavor: we “float trial balloons” in the groups we belong to or “raise a flag and see who salutes.”

See also

• nail one's colours to the mast
• test the waters