tiptoe
Americannoun
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tiptoes
plural
verb (used without object)
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tiptoes,
present (3rd person singular)
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tiptoed,
past participle, past
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tiptoeing
present participle
adjective
-
characterized by standing or walking on tiptoe.
-
straining upward.
-
eagerly expectant.
-
cautious; stealthy.
adverb
idioms
verb
-
to walk with the heels off the ground and the weight supported by the ball of the foot and the toes
-
to walk silently or stealthily
noun
adverb
adjective
-
walking or standing on tiptoe
-
stealthy or silent
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tiptoesimple
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tiptoessimple
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have tiptoedperfect
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has tiptoedperfect
-
am tiptoeingprogressive
-
are tiptoeingprogressive
-
is tiptoeingprogressive
-
have been tiptoeingperfect progressive
-
has been tiptoeingperfect progressive
Past
-
tiptoedsimple
-
had tiptoedperfect
-
was tiptoeingprogressive
-
were tiptoeingprogressive
-
had been tiptoeingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tiptoe
1350–1400; Middle English tiptoon (plural noun). See tip 1, toe
Explanation
To tiptoe is to walk with your weight on your toes, moving quietly. If you're late to your yoga class and everyone's lying still with their eyes closed, you may want to tiptoe to your mat. You can also use tiptoe as a noun or an adjective: "She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach the cabinet where the cookies are kept." Figuratively, you tiptoe when you avoid a certain topic: "There's no need to tiptoe around the subject of money—I don't mind talking about it." The variation tippy toes dates from the early 1800s.
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:
If you can’t remember what it was like to try to tiptoe while swooning, your heart barely able to stay in your chest, you were never a teenager.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
“The art is to tiptoe up to the edge of what’s possible.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
Put all together, investors may remain understandably uneasy about the topic, even if they start to tiptoe back into oversold areas.
From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026
We tiptoe around finances because we’ve been programmed by society to link our personal value to our financial status.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026
Mal had to stand on tiptoe and hold on to the windowsill to see.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
That mordant humor, however enjoyable, tiptoes around the unanswerable question of how, or even whether, we can tell the difference between cosplay and the real thing.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
On that overcast morning with the F-150, Hummel stood on his tiptoes and reached both arms overhead into the tight crevices under the pickup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
Behind them, a slim figure reaches up on tiptoes, but the 1-month pad is still out of her reach.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025
And so is director Marc Webb’s “Snow White,” even as it tiptoes into theaters like they’re full of mean and scary trees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
Penelope had to go right to the edge on tiptoes to get a good look.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
We didn’t say “shame” out loud, but we tiptoed around it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
But having tiptoed cautiously throughout its first year in office, the question is whether this government can convince those potential investors that the economic vision is real?
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2025
He tiptoed around the house, the camera held out in front of him, sometimes for up to 10 minutes for a continuous shot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2025
In a haunting approach, the parents tiptoed toward an eerily lifelike replica of their child’s body and carefully transferred the silicone doppelgänger to an operating table.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2024
After using the toilet—Aunt Rose had indoor plumbing, thankfully, even if she didn’t have electricity—Ophie tiptoed downstairs to the kitchen.
From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland
During my stay on the islands, I regularly found myself tiptoeing around sea lions lounging beside hotel entrances or ferry docks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Investors tiptoeing back into Chinese stocks may want to consider companies that would benefit both from the rise of AI and a potential effort by Beijing to boost consumption.
From Barron's ● Dec. 27, 2025
“Be back in a minute,” Peggy Jo told her mother, tiptoeing past her room.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2025
Now they were tiptoeing along the cutline for the conference tournament.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2025
In a blink, the girls were tiptoeing quickly and quietly down the hallway.
From "Scream for Ice Cream: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #2" by Carolyn Keene
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
