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
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Examples
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Horses walk on tiptoe, literally, unlike us when we walk on what we call tiptoe.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009
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Horses walk on tiptoe, literally, unlike us when we walk on what we call tiptoe.
THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH RICHARD DAWKINS 2009
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The Leads are a greate many stepps up on the top, a Large Cupilow of windows, and ye walls round ye Leads are so high a person of a middle stature Cannot Look over them scarce when on tiptoe, which is a Greate Lessening of its beauty wch would give a Large prospect round of the Country of 10 or 12 miles off.
Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary 1888
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A top Federal Reserve official blasted the Senate's financial reform bill Thursday night, arguing that it does little to end the perception that megabanks are too big to fail while lambasting the regulators and policymakers who "tiptoe" around financial behemoths and who have fostered the growth of "indestructible" large banks.
Richard Fisher, Top Fed Official: Too Big To Fail Lives On, Only Way Out Is To Shrink Megabanks 2010
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And for what it's worth, I think the same things, but when sharing these thoughts with other people I do indeed try to "tiptoe", because I'm not just trying to share my thoughts -ultimately I'd like to persuade or at least challenge, make others reconsider and I think that's a lot easier with a more gentle form.
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Contrast that with the reaction to someone who isn't so socially skilled: "When he is in a bad mood, we kind of tiptoe around him."
How to Be a Smart Protégé Dawn E. Chandler 2009
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Mr. Tiku is also starting to "tiptoe" into the iShares MSCI BRIC exchange-traded fund as emerging markets "have gotten decimated."
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Mr. Tiku is also starting to "tiptoe" into the iShares MSCI BRIC exchange-traded fund as emerging markets "have gotten decimated."
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Plus, of course, Lieberman doesn't "tiptoe" around the war issue - he actually supports the war in Iraq - still!
Chris Durang: Lieberman's Mistaken Idea of Who's Polarizing 2008
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The best way from the environmental perspective would be to kind of tiptoe into climate intervention: ramping it up gradually so if bad things started happening you could ramp it back down again.
Scientific American 2010
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