tiptoe
Americannoun
-
tiptoes
plural
verb (used without object)
-
tiptoes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
tiptoed,
past participle, past
-
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
-
tiptoesimple
-
tiptoessimple
-
have tiptoedperfect
-
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:
When Eucharistic ministers moved through aisles to distribute Communion, they had to tiptoe around knees and handbags.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 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
Now, she’s a mom on the edge, a woman resigned to life’s fringes, where she must tiptoe around live grenades so as not to make anything worse.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2025
That night in bed, Ben heard his mother tiptoe in the room and sit down on his bed.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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
Tamma tiptoes “up climbs with body english and devious footwork”; she clings to fingerholds the size of molars; a fall sees her come “cheesegrating” down a slab.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 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
There you are, reaching on your tiptoes in the grocery store to grab the milk on the highest shelf marked with the latest date.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2024
I step up to the counter on my tiptoes.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
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
The leaders tiptoed around thorny regional security issues like Taiwan and North Korea.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2024
She hadn’t told Klaus about her plan, because she didn’t want to give him false hope, so without waking him, she gathered up her grappling hook and tiptoed out of the room.
From "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket
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
Melina Abdullah, a college professor and prominent civil rights activist, blasted McDonnell for tiptoeing around the incident in his regular department briefing, refusing to call the comments “racist.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
DeShon clutches the ropes, almost tiptoeing from board to board.
From "Paradise on Fire" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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.
