on tiptoe

Question

Hello!Could you please tell me whether on tiptoe has a meaning like look forward to ?Can you please correct my sentence below if anything is wrong with it in terms of grammar or sentence structure?''With Sunday coming, I have been? / had been? / was? on tiptoe for your programme / for watching your programme. But, oh damn, I cannot view it now because the worldwide stream is broken this week! ''

Clive · Accepted Answer

Could you please tell me whether on tiptoe has a meaning like look forward to ? No.
i wonder if you mean 'on tenterhooks'.

Can you please correct my sentence below if anything is wrong in terms of grammar or sentence structure?

''With Sunday coming, I have been? / had been? / was? on tiptoe for your programme / for watching your programme. But I cannot view it because the worldwide stream is broken this week! ''

''With Sunday coming, I am looking forward to your programme, but I cannot view it because the worldwide stream is broken this week! ''

What's the worldwide stream?

BAYRAM ERDEM · Answer

Hello Mr Clive,

thank you for your reply.

CliveNo.i wonder if you mean 'on tenterhooks'.

Initially I wanted to say that I am thinking with pleasure about tuning in to my favourite BBC Radio programme that is going to happen on Sunday. So I thought I could find the synonyms of the well-known phrasal verb look forward to. After a quick google search, I found the following idioms:

be on pins and needles
be on tenterhooks
and
be on tiptoe

As I was unsure as to what the meaning of these three idioms are, I looked them up in the dictionary, and had to leave out 'be on pins and needles' and 'be on tenterhooks' because while cambridge dictionary online defines the former idiom as *'being nervously waiting to find out what's going to happen', it explains the latter one as **'being worried about something that's going to happen.'' Appereantly these two idioms don't work out well for me. Because I only wanted to say that I was expecting to enjoy the radio programme. As I continued searching for the last idiom, which is 'be on tiptoe', The Free Dictionary by Farlex defined it as ***'full of anticipation; eager' and I found an example sentence there:
''The children were on tiptoe before the birthday party.'' But I think that just doesn't sound right to your ears!

CliveWhat's the worldwide stream?

When I try and stream a video on the bbc website, I have been getting an error message, saying "media selection request failed". So because the worldwide stream was probably broken, nobody outside the UK could access BBC iPlayer or watch the programme live today.

* http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/be-on-pins-and-needles?q=be+on+pins+and+needles

** http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tenterhooks?q=on+tenterhooks

*** http://www.thefreedictionary.com/on+tiptoes

on tiptoe

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions