Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An object for a child to play with.
  • noun Something that provides amusement.
  • noun A small ornament; a bauble.
  • noun Something of little importance; a trifle.
  • noun A diminutive thing, especially a dog of a very small breed or of a variety smaller than the standard variety of its breed.
  • noun Scots A loose covering for the head, formerly worn by women.
  • noun Chiefly Southern US A shooter marble.
  • intransitive verb To amuse oneself idly; trifle.
  • intransitive verb To treat something casually or without seriousness: synonym: flirt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To trifle; amuse one's self; play.
  • To dally amorously.
  • To treat in playful fashion; play with.
  • noun A domesticated pigeon of small size, bred for certain color-markings. The toys resemble the tumblers in general build and are among pigeons what bantams are among fowl.
  • noun A knick-knack; an ornament; a gewgaw; a trinket; a bauble.
  • noun Something intended rather for amusement than for serious use; a means of diversion; hence, especially, an object, contrived or used occasionally for the amusement of children or others; a plaything; also, something diminutive, like a plaything.
  • noun A trifle; a thing or matter of no importance or value.
  • noun Play; amorous sport; caress.
  • noun A curious conceit or fable; a story; a tale.
  • noun A fantastic notion; a whim; a caprice.
  • noun Same as toy-mutch.
  • noun In music, in old English writers, a dance-tune or other light, trifling piece.
  • noun A toy dog.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A plaything for children; a bawble.
  • noun A thing for amusement, but of no real value; an article of trade of little value; a trifle.
  • noun A wild fancy; an odd conceit; idle sport; folly; trifling opinion.
  • noun Amorous dalliance; play; sport; pastime.
  • noun An old story; a silly tale.
  • noun Scot. A headdress of linen or woolen, that hangs down over the shoulders, worn by old women of the lower classes; -- called also toy mutch.
  • intransitive verb To dally amorously; to trifle; to play.
  • transitive verb obsolete To treat foolishly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang, derogatory An inferior graffiti artist.
  • verb To play with, to mock
  • verb To ponder or consider.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb manipulate manually or in one's mind or imagination
  • noun any of several breeds of very small dogs kept purely as pets
  • verb engage in an activity as if it were a game rather than take it seriously
  • noun a copy that reproduces a person or thing in greatly reduced size
  • verb behave carelessly or indifferently
  • noun a nonfunctional replica of something else (frequently used as a modifier)
  • noun a device regarded as providing amusement
  • noun an artifact designed to be played with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English toye, amorous play, a piece of fun.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English toye ("amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment"), probably from Middle Dutch toy, tuyg ("tools, apparatus, utensil, ornament") as in Dutch speel-tuig ("play-thing, toy"), from Old Dutch *tiug, from Proto-Germanic *tiugijan (“stuff, matter, device", literally "that which is drawn”), from Proto-Germanic *teuhanan (“to lead, bring, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with German Spielzeug ("toy"), Danish legetøj ("play-thing, toy"). Related to tug, tow.

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