Word.ws English Dictionary

stepping on someone's toes

stepping on someone's toes is the present participle and gerund of step on someone's toes.

Meaning of step on someone's toes

Verb

step on someone's toes (third-person singular simple present steps on someone's toes, present participle stepping on someone's toes, simple past and past participle stepped on someone's toes)

  1. (idiomatic) To cause someone offense, especially by trying to control something that is under their authority, or interfering in their private affairs.
    • I didn't think I'd be stepping on my sister's toes when I told my nephew to sit up straight at the dinner table.

Questions about stepping on someone's toes

What is stepping on someone's toes the present participle and gerund of?
Stepping on someone's toes is the present participle and gerund of step on someone's toes.

Words near stepping on someone's toes in the dictionary

  1. stepping on
  2. stepping on a frog
  3. stepping on a rake
  4. stepping on it
  5. stepping on someone's lines
  6. stepping on someone's toes
  7. stepping on the laughs
  8. stepping out
  9. stepping out of line
  10. stepping out on someone
  11. stepping over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stepping on someone's toes (page history and authors); step on someone's 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: “stepping on someone's toes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stepping_on_someone%27s_toes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.