tightrope walking

• tightrope-walking
• tight-rope walking, tight-rope-walking (dated)

tightrope walking (usually uncountable, plural tightrope walkings)

1. The acrobatic feat of walking on a tightrope.

   Synonym: funambulism

   • 1947 June, Consolata Carroll, “Three-ring Circus”, in Pray Love, Remember, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Company, published September 1947 (2nd printing), →OCLC, page 155:

     Most of the novelties, including the aerial jumpings and the tightrope walkings, had been tapering off in preparation for this exciting final event.

   • 2007, Vito Salierno, “Arab-Norman Sicily”, in Islam and Pakistan’s Identity, Lahore: Iqbal Academy Pakistan, →ISBN, page 131:

     The extant verses deal with the usual subject of love, cup-bearers, songs, dances, music; there is no shortage of tightrope walkings, virtuosity and artificiality typical of Arab poetry.

2. (figuratively) This term needs a definition. Please help out and add a definition, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
   • 1971, Catherine Cookson, “The Lapse”, in The Lord and Mary Ann (Mary Ann; 2), New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, published 1975, →ISBN, page 96:

     Mary Ann could witness the intricacies, the pitfalls, and the tightrope walkings of marriage, and even handle them, but not Michael.

   • 1998 May 10, Stephen Eberhart, “‘South Park,’ Teachers and Kids”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 June 2025:

     Each show targets some facet of adult life that richly deserves to be questioned, such as sport hunting with assault weapons. Those are hot-button topics for adults, and the show’s writing is a miracle of tightrope walking in its handling of them.

   • 1998 December 3, Donna Erismann-Foote, “Letters to the Editor: A Swiss Tightrope”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 June 2025:

     I have failed to find a single article in your newspaper about the "tightrope walking" that the Swiss were forced to perform between the Allies and the Nazis in order to survive as a country and avoid invasion.

tightrope walking

1. present participle and gerund of tightrope walk