Word.ws English Dictionary

walk like an Egyptian

walk like an Egyptian verb: to walk with one arm horizontally at the side, with arm bent at the elbow facing up, and the other arm horizontally at the side with arm bent at the elbow facing down.

walk like an egyptian: to walk with one arm horizontally at the side, with arm bent at the elbow facing up, and the other...
Image: Clinton Steeds from Los Angeles, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

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

  1. (humorous, simile) To walk with one arm horizontally at the side, with arm bent at the elbow facing up, and the other arm horizontally at the side with arm bent at the elbow facing down.
    • “Get ready for pharaohs, pyramids and walking like an Egyptian.” He held bent arms in front and behind him. A laugh bubbled through the room as Mac walked back to his desk and found his Egypt teaching plan.2008, Patricia S. Otto, The Gelidus Factor, page 28

Forms of walk like an Egyptian

third-person singular presentwalks like an Egyptian
present participlewalking like an Egyptian
past participlewalked like an Egyptian
pastwalked like an Egyptian

Origin of walk like an Egyptian

Such figures are sometimes depicted in this pose in ancient Egyptian art.

Questions about walk like an Egyptian

What does walk like an Egyptian mean?
Walk like an Egyptian means to walk with one arm horizontally at the side, with arm bent at the elbow facing up, and the other arm horizontally at the side with arm bent at the elbow facing down.
What part of speech is walk like an Egyptian?
Walk like an Egyptian is a verb.
What is the past tense of walk like an Egyptian?
The past tense of walk like an Egyptian is walked like an Egyptian.

Words near walk like an Egyptian in the dictionary

  1. walk in straight lines
  2. walk in the park
  3. walk in the snow
  4. walk into
  5. walk it like one talks it
  6. walk like an Egyptian
  7. walk of fame
  8. walk of life
  9. walk of shame
  10. walk off
  11. walk off the job

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: walk like an Egyptian (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-au-walk like an Egyptian.ogg.

Cite this entry: “walk like an Egyptian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/walk_like_an_egyptian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.