From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtread carefully/warily/cautiously etctread carefully/warily/cautiously etcCAREFULto be very careful about what you say or do in a difficult situation If I wanted to keep my job, I knew I’d have to tread lightly. → tread
Examples from the Corpus
tread carefully/warily/cautiously etc• Evidence of the erosion is clear along the route and walkers should tread carefully.• So she had to tread carefully.• Sadat now feels less restricted about what she can say, although she treads carefully around politics in her homeland.• It is important, however, to tread carefully around the concept of core groups.• They trod carefully away, shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip.• It behooves companies to tread carefully in this area because even seemingly innocuous questions can get them into trouble.• The press learned to tread carefully on the subject of their leaders' health during the Soviet era.• Supervisors and personnel officers will be instructed to tread carefully when dealing with workers. 