tightrope-walk

Verb

tightrope-walk (third-person singular simple present tightrope-walks, present participle tightrope-walking, simple past and past participle tightrope-walked)

1. (ambitransitive) To walk on a tightrope or on (something) as though on one.
   • It was just 78 years ago that […] [Charles] Blondin tightrope-walked across the Niagara, […]1937 August 21, “Test Your Knowledge of Current Events in News’ Weekly Quiz”, in Buffalo Evening News, volume CXIV, number 112, Buffalo, N.Y., →OCLC, Saturday Magazine (Fiction, Fact and Radio), page...
   • An East German circus artist tightrope-walked across a switched-off power line that had been left from pre-wall days.1979 September 23, A[ssociated] P[ress], “Up against the wall: East Germans find new ways to escape”, in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Oh.: Plain Dealer Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6-E, column 2

   Synonyms:

   tightrope

2. (figuratively) To take a perilous course between alternatives.
   • In his speech tonight, McCain, who has backed [George Walker] Bush on such controversial issues as tax cuts and the Iraq war, will have to tightrope-walk his way between saluting Bush and making it clear that he’s something different, that he represents change.2008 September 4, John Farmer, “Could [John] McCain be the next Teddy [i.e., Theodore Roosevelt]?”, in The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J., →OCLC, page 11, column 1
   • The Onion often tightrope-walks the line between humor and bad taste, but the satirical news site was forced to apologize Monday morning for a distasteful Twitter joke about Quvenzhane Wallis, the nine-year-old star of “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”2013 February 25, Caitlin Dewey, “The Onion apologizes for Quvenzhane Wallis tweet that outraged the Internet”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC...