Word.ws English Dictionary

kept someone on their toes

kept someone on their toes is the simple past and past participle of keep someone on their toes.

Meaning of keep someone on their toes

Verb

keep someone on their toes (third-person singular simple present keeps someone on their toes, present participle keeping someone on their toes, simple past and past participle kept someone on their toes)

  1. (idiomatic) To keep someone attentive, active, busy or alert.
    • Four-year-old twins will certainly keep you on your toes!

Questions about kept someone on their toes

What is kept someone on their toes the simple past and past participle of?
Kept someone on their toes is the simple past and past participle of keep someone on their toes.

Words near kept someone on their toes in the dictionary

  1. kept someone company
  2. kept someone guessing
  3. kept someone honest
  4. kept someone in the loop
  5. kept someone on ice
  6. kept someone on their toes
  7. kept someone posted
  8. kept someone posted up
  9. kept someone sweet
  10. kept someone up at night
  11. kept soul and body together

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kept someone on their toes (page history and authors); keep someone on their toes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “kept someone on their toes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kept_someone_on_their_toes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.