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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 270. The idiom today is on one's toes. Okay.

  • Let's take a look at the note here. If someone is on his or her toes, he or she

  • is alert, attentive, or busy. Okay. The expression is believed to come from

  • the idea that one may have to lift one's heels and change the pressure of your

  • weight on the balls of one's feet in order to jump into action. So you kind of

  • lean up like that. You know, on the balls of your feet.

  • All right. Here we say the balls of one's foot is the slightly round part that

  • sticks out. The part that's just below the toes. That's the balls of your feet.

  • So if you're kind of in action you're kind of up on them ready, ready, ready to

  • go. So that's where the idea if we say somebody needs to be on their toes

  • that's where it comes from. All right. And let's look at ... we have three

  • examples here. Today example number one. Security guards are supposed to keep on

  • their toes and watch out for any danger. They are not supposed to keep their eyes

  • glued to their iPhones. You know, looking at something on the Internet or

  • something like that. They're supposed to be watching. Okay.

  • All right. Number two here. If you play dodge ball, like in high school. They have

  • that big ball they sometimes throw at people. If you play dodge ball you had

  • better keep on your toes or you may end up being hit in the head with a ball. So

  • you got to keep on your toes. You had better watch out. Be careful don't turn your

  • head or you might really get hit. All right and the third one here. Tightrope walkers

  • literally need to keep on their toes. Any slight distraction could cause one

  • to fall. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it.I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time.

  • Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 270. The idiom today is on one's toes. Okay.

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