tightrope-walked

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...

   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