on tiptoe

Idioms  

1. Eagerly anticipating something, as in The children were on tiptoe before the birthday party . [Late 1500s]

2. Moving stealthily, warily, as in They went down the hall on tiptoe . [Mid-1700s] Both usages transfer standing on one's toes to a particular reason for doing so; def. 2 alludes to moving more quietly in this fashion.

---

Example Sentences

Our spring had always arrived on tiptoe and sat in the back row, the opposite of the ebullient temperate-zone season.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2022

My knuckles were raw from kneading, my abs sore from standing on tiptoe to get enough leverage to press down on the dough.

From Salon • Mar. 18, 2022

But if visitors stand on tiptoe to look past the marvelous fresco over the home’s jagged walls, they’ll see how the back rooms remain embedded under the newly “stabilized” unexcavated edge of Pompeii.

From Seattle Times • Feb. 20, 2022

A boy stood on tiptoe to gaze through an eyepiece at an image of the world as a baby octopus would see it: dark, blue and utterly empty.

From Washington Post • Nov. 28, 2017

Dumbledore started to clap; the students, following his lead, broke into applause too, many of them standing on tiptoe, the better to look at this woman.

From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling