sound out
to get an opinion from someone
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Javier Mascherano SOUNDED OUT for Italian job
(The Daily Mail - News Headline)
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European finance ministers seem to think there's a fair chance George Osborne will end up as chancellor, because a number of them have been in touch with him, to SOUND HIM OUT on the euro bailout.
(BBC News)
(The Daily Mail - News Headline)
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European finance ministers seem to think there's a fair chance George Osborne will end up as chancellor, because a number of them have been in touch with him, to SOUND HIM OUT on the euro bailout.
(BBC News)
Did you
know?
sound out
phrasal verb
- to carefully discover what someone thinks or knows
(Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms)
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To sound someone out is to ask them questions in order to obtain information or an opinion. The use of the verb sound in this context likely stems from the maritime sense of sounding, which is measuring the depth of a mass of water like the ocean.
This is usually done with sonar, which measures the length of time it takes for sound to travel to a reflecting surface and back. Think of "sound out" as a human-to-human form of sonar, only without the characteristic "ping."
Speaking of "ping," this is what the Internet industry refers to bouncing a small packet of data off of a remote network address to see how long the packet takes to make the round trip. It is one of the most common utilities for testing Internet connections.
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SYNONYMS
canvas, debrief, enquire, grill, poll, query, survey
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Before you submit the proposal to the customer, sound out our legal department."
phrasal verb
- to carefully discover what someone thinks or knows
(Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms)
---
To sound someone out is to ask them questions in order to obtain information or an opinion. The use of the verb sound in this context likely stems from the maritime sense of sounding, which is measuring the depth of a mass of water like the ocean.
This is usually done with sonar, which measures the length of time it takes for sound to travel to a reflecting surface and back. Think of "sound out" as a human-to-human form of sonar, only without the characteristic "ping."
Speaking of "ping," this is what the Internet industry refers to bouncing a small packet of data off of a remote network address to see how long the packet takes to make the round trip. It is one of the most common utilities for testing Internet connections.
---
SYNONYMS
canvas, debrief, enquire, grill, poll, query, survey
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Before you submit the proposal to the customer, sound out our legal department."
