tippytoe
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of tippytoe
First recorded in 1935–40; by alteration
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.
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A case in point: one soloist performs a legato variation delicately poised on tippytoe.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I tippytoed up the rest of the steps.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
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“Gor, I would like to see that little princess another time, wouldn’t I? And her little pony, too, with his tippytoed feet.”
From "The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread" by Kate DiCamillo
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Caliber—slipped off my boots, tippytoed down the back stairs like a Barred Rock cat, oozed in by the side door—and here I be!
From The Desire of the Moth; and the Come On by Rhodes, Eugene Manlove
The whole year since they'd arrived, the world had held its breath and tippytoed around on best behave.
From Shadow of the Mothaship by Doctorow, Cory
Racey Dawson circled the sheriff's house and tippytoed past the outermost of the six two-room shacks at the rear of the dance hall.
From The Heart of the Range by White, William Patterson
While you were hard at work with your pencil, Guerilla and I were tippytoeing out of that stand of timber behind us a ways.
From The Rider of Golden Bar by White, William Patterson
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.