tiptoe

«tiptoe» in Mova's school dictionary: To walk quietly and carefully on the front parts of your… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (tiptoe, tiptoes, tiptoed, tiptoeing); noun (on tiptoe, on tiptoes); adverb (on tiptoe)

meaning for a pupil

1) To walk quietly and carefully on the front parts of your feet with your heels off the ground. tree →

2) On tiptoe(s): standing or walking on your toes, sometimes to reach higher or to be quiet. tree →

3) Tiptoe around: to avoid talking about something difficult. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life you tiptoe so as not to wake a baby or to sneak up quietly. In stories, characters tiptoe to show secrecy or fear. In PE and dance, tiptoe walking builds balance. In safety: stretching on tiptoe on a wobbly chair to reach a high shelf is dangerous — ask for help or use a proper step. Phrases: on tiptoe, tiptoe past, tiptoe around, stand on tiptoes.

examples

• We tiptoed past the sleeping baby. tree →
• She stood on tiptoe to see over the fence. tree →
• The burglar tiptoed down the hall. tree →
• Tiptoe so you don't wake Grandma. tree →
• Don't stand on tiptoe on a wobbly stool. tree →
• They tiptoed around the subject of the broken vase. tree →
• In ballet, dancers dance on the tips of their toes. tree →
• Then the children crept on tiptoe to a crack in the rocks and got in. tree →

note

Past: tiptoed; -ing: tiptoeing (keep the «e»). One word: tiptoe. «On tiptoe» and «on tiptoes» are both used.

In the corpora

• In Toronto, Zelda tiptoes when Dad gets home from work and checks his face first, to see what mood he's in.
• She can talk to her mum or a teacher, because no child should have to tiptoe every day.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «tiptoe» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.