How to Use tiptoe in a Sentence

tiptoe

1 of 2 noun
Definition of tiptoenext
Synonyms for tiptoenext
  • Keeping the one knee glued into your chest and heel to glute, come up on to the tiptoes of the foot that is still on the floor.
    — Shauna Harrison, SELF, 28 Mar. 2023
  • The other girls stalked around the stage, strutting on their tiptoes.
    — Lizzie Feidelson, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2017
  • The ones that want to get the information out kind of tiptoe around.
    — Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 10 Jan. 2018
  • Marcine lifted the lid, got on his tiptoes and peeked inside.
    — Tim Rohan, New York Times, 22 June 2016
  • Many of the women’s turns were executed with the foot on half tiptoe rather than fully on the tips of the toes.
    — New York Times, 29 May 2018
  • This means that in their board meetings, people talk on tiptoe.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 29 Aug. 2019
  • The room was hot and sweaty and smelled like feet, and Red Bull skydiver Jeff Provenzano was struggling to hold a squat on tiptoe.
    — Jacqueline Detwiler, Popular Mechanics, 22 June 2018
  • It’s the thing so many series and movies tiptoe near, without getting their hands and stories around.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 26 Aug. 2021
  • The girls crept into the kitchen; Lulu stood on tiptoe to see over the top of the kitchen counter, surveying what their uncle had brought them from the party.
    — Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 21 Mar. 2022
  • Women are still held to standards that men on their tiptoes could never reach.
    — Mattie Kahn, Glamour, 2 Jan. 2019
  • Spectators spring onto their tiptoes; a kid whoops and punches the air as the sled barrels through curve six.
    — Nick Pachelli, Esquire, 8 Feb. 2018
  • Standing on her tiptoes, López peered out at the rivers of protesters streaming along the avenue.
    — Camila Osorio, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2017
  • In America’s Game, the end of an era departed on tiptoe.
    — Michael Farber, SI.com, 2 July 2018
  • All four Beatles separately tiptoe to the edge, to sneak a peek at the street below.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 29 Nov. 2021
  • As the song approached its end, Brown stood tall on his tiptoes, then shimmied his way down, line by line, bringing all the voices to a whisper.
    — Rebecca Tan, Washington Post, 27 July 2019
  • In his illustration, Mr. Zubaydah shows himself nude and shackled at the wrists to a bar above his head, forced to stand on tiptoe.
    — Carol Rosenberg, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2019
  • In the front yard there's a black granite monument with a silhouette of Michael Jackson on his tiptoes with an image of the moon in the backdrop.
    — Javonte Anderson, chicagotribune.com, 13 June 2017
  • Patients should not have to guard against hostile providers or navigate the health care system on tiptoe.
    — Amy Stulman, Quartz, 10 Sep. 2019
  • Our spring had always arrived on tiptoe and sat in the back row, the opposite of the ebullient temperate-zone season.
    — Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2022
  • The water level in the tank gets lowered by 200 gallons so that, on tiptoe, a wet-suited Gilboa can shout instructions.
    — James T. Bartlett, Los Angeles Times, 6 May 2020
  • Rather than tiptoe around the issue, as presidents have so far, Biden should name and shame these bad actors—and take powerful action to stop them.
    — Lydia Millet, The New Republic, 7 Dec. 2020
  • To create these monsters, though, the adult child needs to answer the phone, copy her key, surrender her uniforms and tiptoe around parental criticism.
    — Washington Post, 28 June 2021
  • The collective psyche of the Big Orange is already so fragile that embattled coach Butch Jones has to walk on tiptoes.
    — David Caraviello, ajc, 2 Oct. 2017
  • Rather than struggle to a breakdown or breakthrough, mother and child tiptoe to acceptance.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 16 May 2023
  • Within a few years, players from other Bay Area teams, local sports announcers and journalists got on their tiptoes and joined the fun.
    — Bill Van Niekerken, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Dec. 2017
  • Explosively raise up onto your tiptoes, lifting the med ball high and throwing your arms over your shoulders.
    — David Otey, Men's Health, 20 July 2023
  • On Tuesday, the Live with Kelly and Ryan host shared a very impressive photo of herself wearing some satin pointe shoes and balancing on her tiptoes.
    — Ashley Boucher, PEOPLE.com, 14 Aug. 2019
  • The pop star, 39, posted an image of a child standing on tiptoe alongside another pair of bare feet to her Instagram on Tuesday.
    — Dan Heching, PEOPLE.com, 16 Nov. 2021
  • To access some of the more tightly packed tables, anyone who’s not a string bean is forced to enter seats sideways, sometimes on tiptoe, and invade a neighbor’s space one of two ways: by butt or by crotch.
    — Tom Sietsema, The Denver Post, 16 June 2017
  • To access some of the more tightly packed tables, anyone who's not a string bean is forced to enter seats sideways, sometimes on tiptoe, and invade a neighbor's space one of two ways: by butt or by crotch.
    — Tom Sietsema, chicagotribune.com, 14 June 2017
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tiptoe

2 of 2 verb
  • He tiptoed quietly around the house to avoid waking the children.
  • At the time, the Asian reaction was mostly to tiptoe around the news that came out of Wuhan.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Over the past year glitter has tiptoed back on the beauty scene.
    — Andrea Lavinthal, Cosmopolitan, 6 Mar. 2009
  • In the workplace, the default course of action is to tiptoe around the elephant.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes, 14 Apr. 2022
  • The guy was trying to tiptoe the sideline, try to keep picking up yards.
    — Philly.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • Agholor tiptoed in bounds after the rolling Foles found him on a comeback.
    — Jeff McLane, Philly.com, 13 June 2018
  • But Trump has a habit of tiptoeing to the brink of displeasing his base and then pulling back.
    — vanityfair.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • De León, 50, is tiptoeing around the land-mine issue of ageism.
    — George Skelton, latimes.com, 19 Oct. 2017
  • That’s a startling fact that’s hard for anyone to tiptoe around.
    — Kent Somers, azcentral, 11 Nov. 2019
  • Bryan Harsin, if that doesn’t work, then just tiptoe out the backdoor when no one is looking.
    — Joseph Goodman | Jgoodman@al.com, al, 14 Mar. 2022
  • At the hospital, McGilvrey stood on her tiptoes to peer through a window and see her son.
    — Jessica Ravitz, CNN, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Google also must tiptoe around that whole free speech thing.
    — Alexandra Bruell, WSJ, 22 Mar. 2017
  • Rose has learned how to tiptoe around his moods and alpha male outbursts.
    — Robert W. Butler, kansascity, 21 Oct. 2017
  • Three cats — sometimes tiptoeing over the books on the tables — add some charm.
    — Jane Perlez, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2018
  • But the press shouldn't tiptoe around this story anymore.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN, 25 Aug. 2019
  • On 3rd-and-goal, Carr rolled to his left, sidestepped to buy time and threw a dart toward the edge of the end zone to Renfrow, who tiptoed inside the boundary on the catch.
    — Matt Kawahara, SFChronicle.com, 3 Nov. 2019
  • To be fair, the U.S. has tiptoed into the quota trend, but not via Washington.
    — Claire Zillman, Fortune, 24 Jan. 2020
  • A businessman in a suit can't resist glancing at his phone and tiptoes away to make a call.
    — Jessica Ravitz, CNN, 19 July 2017
  • When Freeze was asked about the talent gap between Auburn and some of the the leaders in the league, he was left tiptoeing and stammering.
    — Ainslie Lee | Alee@al.com, al, 24 July 2023
  • Now weighing 345 pounds, 1-month-old Travis stuck close to Belle’s side, tiptoed near the water, laid down in a bed of hay and received a dust bath!
    — Zaeem Shaikh, Dallas News, 5 Apr. 2023
  • Of course, teaching that you, in effect, can tiptoe around them … that risked angering the church.
    — John Timpane, Philly.com, 6 Apr. 2018
  • Find your voice, find the strength to stand up to pressure, then find joy in walking your own path vs. tiptoeing on somebody else's.
    — Carolyn Hax, oregonlive.com, 25 June 2019
  • Find your voice, find the strength to stand up to pressure, then find joy in walking your own path vs. tiptoeing on somebody else’s.
    — Carolyn Hax, The Mercury News, 26 June 2019
  • Jimenez says this has given the armadillo a reason to tiptoe north.
    — Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune, 14 May 2022
  • Neil deGrasse Tyson doesn’t tiptoe around the truth, no matter how grisly.
    — Manasee Wagh, Popular Mechanics, 11 Oct. 2022
  • That was the message all week — all month, really — with USC still tiptoeing along the precipice of its season.
    — Ryan Kartje, Los Angeles Times, 5 Nov. 2023
  • But now, officials believe the time has come to tiptoe away from such full-fledged support.
    — New York Times, 22 Sep. 2021
  • The boys of winter leave warm beds in darkness, tiptoeing out of bedrooms, lugging heavy bags, sticks, and skates.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 25 Nov. 2019
  • Branch received the kickoff near the four-yard line, tiptoed forward slowly and hit overdrive straight up the middle.
    — Thuc Nhi Nguyen, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2023
  • Beavers, quail, and deer, which haven’t been seen in the area in decades, tiptoe through swampy ponds early in the morning, while migratory birds alight overnight on knolls before flying south.
    — Jake Bittle, WIRED, 6 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tiptoe.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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