vibe check

plural vibe checks

1. slangAn impromptu attempt to ascertain mood, opinions, or attributes.

   The Honey BBQ wings tasted a little off. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I know they didn't pass the vibe check.

   2019, "Booyahs", The Sailors' Log (Mona Shores High School, Norton Shores, Michigan), 19 December 2019, page 4

   2 more examples

   Usually we'll listen to a track. It just depends. Sometimes they have a funny premise or a certain vibe and we'll make something oriented towards that premise or vibe. If it passes the vibe check, we kick things off.

   2020, Emma Sophia Valles, "Going Big With Tiny Meat Gang", Poptized Magazine, Winter 2020, page 48

   Melbourne does make having a good time easier, but the reason it passes the vibe check is because of the people that I've shared these perfect nights with, little slices of time that felt so perfect I felt nostalgic about them as I lived them.

   2020, Liam Armstrong-Carrigan, "Where is Australia's best nightlife", Honi Soit (University of Sydney), Semester 1, Week 5 (2020), page 16

present singular third person vibe checks · participle present vibe checking · participle past vibe checked · past vibe checked

1. slangtransitiveTo perform a vibe check on (somebody).

   thought about vibe checking god by just straight up dying.

   2019, anonymous, quoted in "Free For All", The University Daily Kansan (University of Kansas), 24 October 2019, page 9

   2 more examples

   He was still recovering from the Blue Whale Comedy festival, during which he spent two days running between venues, setting up chairs, grabbing cash boxes for volunteers, performing sound checks, and vibe-checking national comedians he had booked.

   2016, Mitch Gilliam, “A shining, bald duck”, in The Tulsa Voice, 5 October - 18 October 2016, page 30

   “We've got to vibe-check leaders on the planet,” said one student in the group.

   2019, Noel Miller, quoted in Kayvan Aflaki, "Climate crisis moves students to strike for change", The Medium (University of Toronto - Mississauga), 30 September 2019, page 1