Definition of "flagpole" []

• A pole on which a flag is raised. Also called flagstaff. (noun)
• Run (something) up the flagpole Slang To test (a plan, suggestion, draft, or idea) and then measure the response to it. (idiom)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The message of the pledge and the flagpole is that this is a nation that we live in and whose values we cherish."
• "When the best thing you can find to run up the flagpole is something pointedly unimpressive, what you’re better off running up the flagpole is nothing atall."
• "Just behind the hedges in the middle of the picture by the flagpole are a couple walls with the remains of gravestones of soldiers from almost 200 years ago."