Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To walk or move quietly on one's toes.
  • noun The tip of a toe.
  • adjective Standing or walking on one's toes.
  • adjective Stealthy; wary.
  • adverb On one's toes.
  • adverb Stealthily; warily.
  • idiom (on tiptoe) Full of anticipation; eager.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To go or move on the tips of the toes, or with a mincing gait, as from caution or eagerness.
  • noun The tip of a toe: used in the plural, with reference to posture or movement on the ends (balls) of the toes of both feet, literally or figuratively.
  • noun The ends of the toes collectively; the forward extremity of the foot, or of the feet jointly: in the phrase on tiptoe (a tiptoe), indicating cautious or mincing movement, or a stretching up to the greatest possible height: also used figuratively.
  • On tiptoe, literally or figuratively.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Being on tiptoe, or as on tiptoe; hence, raised as high as possible; lifted up; exalted; also, alert.
  • adjective Noiseless; stealthy.
  • adjective the highest degree of mirth.
  • intransitive verb To step or walk on tiptoe.
  • noun The end, or tip, of the toe.
  • noun to be awake or alive to anything; to be roused; to be eager or alert.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Alternative spelling of tip-toe.
  • noun The tips of one's toes collectively.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective walking on the tips of ones's toes so as to make no noise
  • verb walk on one's toes
  • adverb on tiptoe or as if on tiptoe
  • noun the tip of a toe

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From tip.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tiptoe.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.