tightrope
Americannoun
-
tightropes
plural
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
-
a rope or cable stretched taut above the ground on which acrobats walk or perform balancing feats
-
to be in a difficult situation that demands careful and considered behaviour
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tightrope
Explanation
A tightrope is a thin, tightly stretched wire or rope meant to be walked on. If you go to the circus, you may see acrobats doing tricks on tightropes high above the ground. Some tightrope walkers hold long sticks that help them balance, and others do somersaults, juggle, or dance, all while balancing on the tightrope. Another kind of acrobatics is slackrope walking, performed on loose or slack wires or ropes. The technical term for the art of walking on a tightrope or slackrope is funambulism — and a person who does it is a funambulist.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Manufacturers and retailers are also walking an oil-products tightrope, trying to balance higher fuel costs with their profit margins, and passing costs along to consumers is not always in their best interest.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
“It’s a tightrope, there’s no question,” Hills said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
The court’s precedents are creating an invisible tightrope very few plaintiffs can cross successfully.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
But this seemed like the year that one of them would swallow hard, push all their chips into the center of the table and go for it—not walk the tightrope between competitiveness and austerity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
They moved toward the ice-cream parlor like tightrope walkers, as dirilled by the possibility of a slip as by the maintenance of tension and balance.
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
It was the tightest of tightropes for the DUP leader.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2023
But the new Trojans star sees no need to tiptoe along any tightropes, confining himself to what others expect a quarterback — or Heisman winner — to become.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
You can stick on the path or walk on the rocky beach among the driftwood that adults use for benches and children pretend are tightropes.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 15, 2022
Yes, the audience saw some of those naughty early things—for example, “Ballet,” from 1968, in which a dancer walked through the air on two tightropes.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 24, 2019
Street performers played accordions and walked low tightropes.
From "Genuine Fraud" by E. Lockhart
In the fourth, Tucker Barnhart and Akil Baddoo both reached on softly hit infield singles before Buehler again tightroped out of the inning, rolling Eric Haase into an inning-ending double-play in the next at-bat.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2022
As Roberts tightroped along the sideline, eluding tackles, the Jets bench went berserk, with players tossing water into the air.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
Director Chanelle Aponte Pearson used the phrase “radical honesty” to describe the tightroped vulnerability involved in telling a partner about wanting to be romantically involved with more than one person.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 15, 2017
WSU trailed at halftime, 10-7, but had three third-quarter touchdowns to take control, the first on Kegel’s 54-yard bomb to fleet Sammie Moore, who tightroped the sideline to score.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 16, 2013
Saunders tightroped his way out of trouble throughout the night and allowed only run in 52 3 innings to earn the win.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2012
On third-and-three from the Washington 28, Jack took off on a scoring run that included a stiff-arm and 360-degree spin to elude three defenders before tightroping the sideline en route to the end zone.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 9, 2014
Out of breath and sweaty, we wandered into the cracked lot in front of Kip’s Minute Market, tightroping the cement parking blocks one after another, until Irene said, “I want strawberry Bubblicious.”
From "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by emily m. danforth
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