• IPA: /tɔɪ/

toy (plural toys)

1. Something to play with, especially as intended for use by a child. [from 16th c.]

   A grown man does not play with a child’s toy.

2. A thing of little importance or value; a trifle. [from 16th c.]

   • They exchange for knives, glasses, and such toys, great abundance of gold and pearl.

3. A simple, light piece of music, written especially for the virginal. [16th-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) Love play, amorous dalliance; fondling. [16th-18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.i:

     Then seemed him his Lady by him lay, / And to him playnd, how that false winged boy, / Her chast hart had subdewd, to learne Dame pleasures toy.

5. (obsolete) A vague fancy, a ridiculous idea or notion; a whim. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗:

     , vol.1, III.i.2:

     Though they do talk with you, and seem to be otherwise employed, and to your thinking very intent and busy, still that toy runs in their mind, that fear, that suspicion, that abuse, that jealousy […].

   • To fly about playing their wanton toys.

   • c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, OCLC 3083972 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     What if a toy take 'em i'th' heels now, and they all run away.

   • Nor light and idle toys my lines may vainly swell.

6. (slang, derogatory) An inferior graffiti artist.
   • 2009, Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground (page 40)

     It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.

   • 2011, Adam Melnyk, Visual Orgasm: The Early Years of Canadian Graffiti (page 45)

     I was a toy until I met Sear, who moved here from Toronto and showed me the book Subway Art.

7. (obsolete) An old story; a silly tale.
   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act 5, scene 1]:

     More strange than true: I never may believe these antique fables, nor these fairy toys.

8. (Scotland, archaic) A headdress of linen or wool that hangs down over the shoulders, worn by old women of the lower classes; called also toy mutch.
   • 1814 July 6, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 270129598 ↗:

9. A sex toy object or device to give sexual pleasure.

• See also Thesaurus:toy

• French: jouet
• German: Spielzeug
• Italian: giocattolo, balocco
• Portuguese: brinquedo
• Russian: игру́шка
• Spanish: juguete

toy (toys, present participle toying; past and past participle toyed)

1. (intransitive) To play#Verb|play (with) in an idle or desultory way.

   to toy with a piece of food on one’s plate

   Figo is toying with the English defence.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: Printed [by Richard Field] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 932900760 ↗, book V, stanza 24, page 246 ↗:

     His [Hercules#English|Hercules's] Lyons skin chaungd to a pall of gold, / In which forgetting warres, he onely ioyed / In combats of ſweet loue, and with his miſtreſſe toyed.

2. (intransitive) To ponder or consider.

   I have been toying with the idea of starting my own business.

3. (slang, transitive) To stimulate with a sex toy.
   • 2013, Jonathan Everest, Lady Loverly's Chattel

     He could see her hand go to her slit, and soon she was toying herself along, breathing heavily.

• French: jouer (avec), amuser (avec)
• German: herumspielen, spielen
• Italian: giocare, trastullarsi, baloccarsi, giocherellare
• Russian: забавля́ться
• Spanish: jugar con alguien

• French: caresser une idée, triturer a question, a problem
• Italian: carezzare, giocherellare
• Spanish: darle vueltas a una idea

1. Surname