Word.ws English Dictionary

tightrope-walking

tightrope-walking is the alternative form of tightrope walking.

tightrope-walking is the present participle and gerund of tightrope-walk.

Meaning of tightrope walking

Noun

tightrope walking (usually uncountable, plural tightrope walkings)

  1. (usually) The acrobatic feat of walking on a tightrope.
    • Most of the novelties, including the aerial jumpings and the tightrope walkings, had been tapering off in preparation for this exciting final event.1947 June, Consolata Carroll, “Three-ring Circus”, in Pray Love, Remember, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Company, published September 1947 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 155

Meaning of 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...
    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

Questions about tightrope-walking

What is tightrope-walking the alternative form of?
Tightrope-walking is the alternative form of tightrope walking.

Words near tightrope-walking in the dictionary

  1. tightrope walks
  2. tightrope-walk
  3. tightrope-walked
  4. tightrope-walker
  5. tightrope-walkers
  6. tightrope-walking
  7. tightrope-walks
  8. tightroped
  9. tightroper
  10. tightropers
  11. tightropes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tightrope-walking (page history and authors); tightrope walking (page history and authors); tightrope-walk (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: “tightrope-walking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tightrope-walking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.