fly a kite

1. To suggest something in order to gauge interest in it or others' perception of it. When everyone objected to my idea, I reassured them that I was just flying a kite and had not made any sort of decision on the matter. If management criticizes your suggestion to close the office early on Fridays in the summer, say you were just flying a kite. A: "I'm just flying a kite. Maybe Mom and Dad will agree to giving me a later curfew, you never know." B: "Please, there's no way they'll let you stay out till 11 PM."

2. To ponder a potential reason or explanation for something. Oh, you're just flying a kite—you don't really know why Emily didn't come to the party. Don't listen to Brian, that guy's always flying a kite about how someone has wronged him. Would you stop flying a kite? We need facts now, not more baseless theories.

See also: fly, kite

fly a kite

try something out to test opinion. informal

A historical sense of this phrase was ‘raise money by an accommodation bill’, meaning to raise money on credit, and this sense of testing public opinion of your creditworthiness gave rise to the current figurative sense. The US phrase go fly a kite! means ‘go away!’.

See also: fly, kite

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

fly a ˈkite

(British English, informal) release a bit of information, etc. in order to test public reaction to something that you plan to do at a later date: Let’s fly a kite. Tell the papers that the government is thinking of raising the school leaving age to 18, and we’ll see what the reaction is.

A kite is a kind of toy that you fly in the air at the end of one or more long strings. It will tell you which way the wind is blowing.

See also: fly, kite

(go) fly a/your ˈkite

(American English, informal) used to tell somebody to go away and stop annoying you or interfering

See also: fly, kite

See also:

fly a/your kite

fly a kite

fly a kite

fly a ˈkite

(go) fly a/your ˈkite