walk a tightrope

present singular third person walks a tightrope · participle present walking a tightrope · participle past walked a tightrope · past walked a tightrope

1. figurativelyTo undertake a precarious course of action.

   The company constantly walked a tightrope between operating on little money and filling orders quickly.

   1 more example

   The older me, the one who prefers wine to fizz, wishes Leerhsen had more to say about things like: a) the elite and vernacular food worlds pre- and post-Bourdain; b) how Bourdain walked a moral tightrope across the conventions of travel writing and reporting, no mean feat for a wealthy white man in skinny jeans; […].

   2022 October 3, Dwitght Garner, “Anthony Bourdain’s New Biography: Light on Subtlety, Heavy on Grit”, in The New York Times