tightrope-walk

verb

Etymology

The verb is a back-formation from tightrope walking.

Definitions

  1. To walk on a tightrope or on (something) as though on one.

    • It was just 78 years ago that […] [Charles] Blondin tightrope-walked across the Niagara, […]
    • An East German circus artist tightrope-walked across a switched-off power line that had been left from pre-wall days.
    • In Santa Monica, a daredevil tightrope-walks across a swing set.
  2. To take a perilous course between alternatives.

  3. Alternative form of tightrope walk.

    • [Marshall] Goldberg then rounded his own right end and tightrope-walked the side chalk mark for 18 yards and a first down on the Washington 35.
    • He tightrope-walked to a Game 2 save, giving up back-to-back, two-out singles to Corey Dickerson and Yadier Molina before getting Tommy Edman to foul out.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tightrope-walk. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA