🗓️ Idiom: Tiptoe Around Something or Someone (v)
💬 Meaning
- To avoid directly addressing a problem or sensitive issue.
- To be careful with your words or actions to prevent upsetting someone.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The team kept tiptoeing around the issue of staff complaints during the meeting.
- Customer service staff often have to tiptoe around angry customers to keep the situation calm.
- Instead of tiptoeing around the problem, the manager should discuss it openly.
🏛️ Origin
The idiom comes from the action of walking quietly on your toes to avoid making noise. By the early 1900s, it began to be used figuratively for avoiding direct discussion of sensitive topics — similar to walking carefully to prevent trouble.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The HR manager didn’t want to upset anyone, so she _______ the subject of employee complaints.
Answer
tiptoed around
2. Multiple choice:
To “tiptoe around” something means:
a) To talk directly and clearly about a problem
b) To avoid or handle an issue very carefully
c) To make a formal complaint
Answer
b) To avoid or handle an issue very carefully
3. Change the sentence using “tiptoe around”:
“The customer service team avoided mentioning the delay to keep the client calm.”
Answer
The customer service team tiptoed around the delay to keep the client calm.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
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