sound out

sound out

Verb

to question (someone) in order to discover his or her opinion: you might try sounding him out about his family

Thesaurus

Verb	1.	sound out - speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way; "She pronounces French words in a funny way"; "I cannot say `zip wire'"; "Can the child sound out this complicated word?" enounce, enunciate, pronounce, articulate, say twang - pronounce with a nasal twang devoice - utter with tense vocal chords raise - pronounce (vowels) by bringing the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth; "raise your `o'" lilt - articulate in a very careful and rhythmic way palatalise, palatalize - pronounce a consonant with the tongue against the palate nasalise, nasalize - pronounce with a lowered velum; "She nasalizes all her vowels" nasalise, nasalize - speak nasally or through the nose; "In this part of the country, people tend to nasalize" mispronounce, misspeak - pronounce a word incorrectly; "She mispronounces many Latinate words" aspirate - pronounce with aspiration; of stop sounds vocalize, voice, vocalise, sound - utter with vibrating vocal chords retroflex - articulate (a consonant) with the tongue curled back against the palate; "Indian accents can be characterized by the fact that speakers retroflex their consonants" subvocalise, subvocalize - articulate without making audible sounds; "she was reading to herself and merely subvocalized" syllabise, syllabize - utter with distinct articulation of each syllable; "The poet syllabized the verses he read" drawl - lengthen and slow down or draw out; "drawl one's vowels" labialise, labialize, round - pronounce with rounded lips lisp - speak with a lisp accent, accentuate, stress - put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" vowelise, vowelize, vocalise, vocalize - pronounce as a vowel; "between two consonants, this liquid is vowelized" click - produce a click; "Xhosa speakers click" trill - pronounce with a trill, of the phoneme `r'; "Some speakers trill their r's" sibilate - pronounce with an initial sibilant flap - pronounce with a flap, of alveolar sounds explode - cause to burst as a result of air pressure; of stop consonants like /p/, /t/, and /k/ roll - pronounce with a roll, of the phoneme /r/; "She rolls her r's"
	2.	sound out - try to learn someone's opinions and intentions; "I have to sound out the new professor" feel out, check out query, question - pose a question