Other forms: tiptoes, tiptoeing
To tiptoe is to walk silently on the balls of your feet. Tiptoe past the door, tiptoeing about, on tiptoe.
On tiptoe means standing stretched up on your toes to reach or see. Figuratively, to tiptoe around a subject is to avoid saying anything direct about it, which is one of the commonest uses. Note that tiptoe is a verb and a noun and works as both without changing; and that tiptoe through the tulips is a fixed phrase from a song that has outlived every other trace of it.
1verbtiptoeTo walk silently on the balls of your feet.
“She tiptoed past the baby's room so she wouldn't wake him.”
2nounstretchedThe stretched-up position on your toes.
“He had to stand on tiptoe to reach the top shelf.”
tiptoe is a quiet walking.
Also accepted in games: creep, sneak
The word is tip plus toe, first recorded in Middle English. It is a plain compound describing exactly the part of the foot involved, which is why it has never needed replacing.
Middle English
tipto
English, today
tiptoe
From Middle English tipto, typto; equivalent to tip + toe. Compare fingertip.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, Ways of Moving