Definition of "tiptoe"

Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day / Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene v]

And ever as they talked Beregond was more amazed, and looked with greater wonder at the hobbit, swinging his short legs as he sat on the seat, or standing tiptoe upon it to peer over the sill at the lands below.

1955 October 20, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Minas Tirith”, in The Return of the King: Being the Third Part of The Lord of the Rings […], New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, published December 1978, book V, page 39

with tiptoe step

1782, William Cowper, Expostulation

And stole along on tiptoe tread

1819, Lord Byron, The Prophecy of Dante

We went tip-toeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads.

1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter II, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], page 8

We tiptoed into the house, up the stairs and along the hall into the room where the Professor had been spending so much of his time.

1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 13, in Mr. Pratt's Patients

Tiptoe through the window / By the window, that is where I'll be / Come tiptoe through the tulips with me / Tiptoe from your pillow / To the shadow of the willow tree / And tiptoe through the tulips with me.

1929, “Tiptoe Through the Tulips”, Al Dubin (lyrics), Joe Burke (music), performed by Nick Lucas