Word.ws English Dictionary

tiptoe

UK/ˈtɪpˌtəʊ//ˈtɪpˌtoʊ/

tiptoe noun: the tip of the toe.

Noun

tiptoe (plural tiptoes)

  1. (plural-normally) The tip of the toe.

Adjective

tiptoe (not comparable)

  1. Standing elevated, on or as if on the tips of one's toes.
    • Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day / Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • And ever as they talked Beregond was more amazed, and looked with greater wonder at the hobbit, swinging his short legs as he sat on the seat, or standing tiptoe upon it to peer over the sill at the lands below.1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Minas Tirith”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December...
  2. Moving carefully, quietly, warily or stealthily, on or as if on the tips of one's toes.
    • with tiptoe step1782, William Cowper, Expostulation
    • And stole along on tiptoe tread1819, Lord Byron, The Prophecy of Dante

Verb

tiptoe (third-person singular simple present tiptoes, present participle tiptoeing, simple past and past participle tiptoed)

  1. (intransitive) To walk quietly with only the tips of the toes touching the ground.
    • We went tip-toeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter II, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 8
    • We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    tip

Proper noun capitalized: Tiptoe

Tiptoe

  1. A small village in Hordle parish and Sway parish, New Forest district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SZ2597).

tiptoe meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

tiptoe in Tamil

கட்டைவிரல் நுனி, கால்விரல் நுனி, விரல்நுனியில் நட

tiptoe in Urdu

چوری چھپے, ایڑیوں کے بل

tiptoe in Malayalam

പാദാഗ്രം, അഗ്രപാദം, കാൽവിരലറ്റം

tiptoe in Kannada

ತುದಿಗಾಲಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆ, ಮೆಟ್ಟಿಂಗಾಲಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಡೆ
More languagesFewer languages
tiptoe in Tagalog
tumiyad
tiptoe in Arabic
رُؤُوسُ أَصَابِع ruʔūsu ʔaṣābiʕ
tiptoe in Vietnamese
nhón

Examples of tiptoe in a sentence

  • As I tiptoed past the sleeping dog, my heart was pounding but I remained silent.
  • We crept out on tiptoe so as not to awake the children.
  • She stood on her tiptoes to appear taller.

All 22 example sentences with tiptoe

Synonyms of tiptoe

Forms of tiptoe

Noun
pluraltiptoes
alternative formtip-toe
alternative formtippytoe
alternative formtippy-toe
Verb
third-person singular presenttiptoes
present participletiptoeing
past participletiptoed
pasttiptoed

Plural of tiptoe: tiptoes

Origin of tiptoe

From Middle English tipto, typto; equivalent to tip + toe. Compare fingertip.

Derived from a surname of French origin recorded in the 13th century as "Typetot".

Words formed from tiptoe

Words that rhyme with tiptoe

Questions about tiptoe

What does tiptoe mean?
Tiptoe means the tip of the toe.
What is tiptoe in Tamil?
Tiptoe in Tamil is கட்டைவிரல் நுனி, கால்விரல் நுனி, விரல்நுனியில் நட. See Tiptoe meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tiptoe?
Tiptoe can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tiptoe?
Tiptoe is pronounced /ˈtɪpˌtəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of tiptoe?
The plural of tiptoe is tiptoes.

Words near tiptoe in the dictionary

  1. tipsy laird
  2. tipsy pudding
  3. tipt
  4. tipteerer
  5. tipteerers
  6. tiptoe
  7. tiptoe around
  8. tiptoe through a minefield
  9. tiptoed
  10. tiptoed around
  11. tiptoed through a minefield

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tiptoe (page history and authors); Tiptoe (page history and authors); tiptoe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tiptoe (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tiptoe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tiptoe (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-tiptoe.ogg, en-au-tiptoe.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tiptoe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tiptoe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.