kick the tires
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.95 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To inspect something to ensure it meets expected standards or has favored characteristics, typically before committing to purchasing or otherwise selecting it.
Colloquial
verb
To inspect something to ensure it meets expected standards or has favored characteristics, typically before committing to purchasing or otherwise selecting it.
Colloquial
Example Sentences
- "But, like the Color-Sonics machine, US operators have had no opportunity to "kick the tires" on Cine-Jukebox."
- "Red Flag 1: When an Analyst Doesn't Kick the Tires or Even Read a Company's Filings"
- "Microsoft finally took some of the wraps off last week, releasing Vista's first major test version to about 500,000 programmers and tech professionals. The goal is to let them kick the tires, run their software on it and provide feedback."
- ""Iowa has, the last number of presidential cycles, really been the bellwether state to pick nominees," he said. "And it's got this great balance of rural and somewhat urban, Midwest and Upper Midwest — it's just got a great balance of people so that the rest of the country looks at it. Plus it's a small enough population in size that people get the individual feel of candidates. It's like everybody depends on Iowa to kick the tires on the candidates.""
- "In the coming weeks, Albertans will get a chance to kick the tires of the party leaders, their platforms and local candidates."
- "The Packers will kick the tires on two injured starters in preparation for the playoffs."