Vibe check
Etymology
From vibe, short for "vibration," 1960s slang for the intuitive feeling a person or place gives off. "Vibe check" spread as a meme on Twitter and TikTok around 2019, sometimes as a mock-authoritative demand ("this is a vibe check") and sometimes as a genuine welfare question.
noun · /VYB chek/
An impromptu read on someone’s mood, energy, or state — sometimes literally on how drunk they are.
What it names
It names the quick social diagnostic we run on a person or a room, turning an intuitive sense of "the vibe" into something you can deliberately test and report back on.
Example
Quick vibe check before we walk in — is everyone okay to do this?
Related idea
A mood is what someone feels; a vibe check is the act of gauging it from the outside.
See also