toe-dip

present singular third person toe-dips · participle present toe-dipping · participle past toe-dipped · past toe-dipped

1. transitiveTo dip a toe into something.

   All newcomers who plunged or waded or toe-dipped into the market believed, or at least hoped, they had some special insight or cleverness not granted to anybody else.

   2011, Max Gunther, Wall Street and Witchcraft

   2 more examples

   Thus Clement Stone, though he has toe-dipped and waded and sometimes plunged into many ventures during the course of a busy life, is still inescapably labeled as an insurance man.

   2010, Max Gunther, The Very, Very Rich and How They Got That Way

   Adam, who is admittedly risk-averse, kept his day job for the first 18 months after the family opened its business. During those beginning months, he said he “toe-dipped” in.

   2018 May 3, Stacey Jenkins, “Family Business on Tap at Reuben's Brews”, in Rewire

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see toe, dip.

   First she toe-dipped, and squealed, then timidly let herself down the ladder inch by chilly inch.

   1981, David Littlejohn, Going to California, page 61