"on one's toes" meaning in English

See on one's toes in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: En-au-on one's toes.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=on one's toes}} on one's toes
  1. (idiomatic) Attentive, active, busy or alert. Tags: idiomatic Derived forms: keep someone on their toes Translations (attentive, active, busy): varpaillaan (Finnish), auf Trab (German), på tå hev (Norwegian Nynorsk), настороже (nastorože) (Russian), начеку (načeku) (Russian), в тонусе (v tonuse) (Russian), på tårna (Swedish)
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "word": "keep someone on their toes"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I keep my students on their toes with pop quizzes.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Attentive, active, busy or alert."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_one's_toes-en-prep_phrase-u5pt9J5g",
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        [
          "Attentive",
          "attentive"
        ],
        [
          "active",
          "active"
        ],
        [
          "busy",
          "busy"
        ],
        [
          "alert",
          "alert"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) Attentive, active, busy or alert."
      ],
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "varpaillaan"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "auf Trab"
        },
        {
          "code": "nn",
          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "på tå hev"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "nastorože",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "настороже"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "načeku",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "начеку"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "v tonuse",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "в тонусе"
        },
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          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
          "word": "på tårna"
        }
      ]
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      "word": "keep someone on their toes"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "Attentive, active, busy or alert."
      ],
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          "Attentive",
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        ],
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          "active",
          "active"
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          "busy",
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        ],
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          "alert",
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        "(idiomatic) Attentive, active, busy or alert."
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "varpaillaan"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "auf Trab"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "på tå hev"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "nastorože",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "настороже"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "načeku",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "начеку"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "v tonuse",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "в тонусе"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "attentive, active, busy",
      "word": "på tårna"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on one's toes"
}

Download raw JSONL data for on one's toes meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-31 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (bcd5c38 and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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