DictionaryAI

toy

TOY/tɔɪ/

Pluraltoys

Verbtoys, toying, toyed

20 meanings of toy

Practice

  1. 1
    for kids' playnouncountable
    An object designed for play, especially one intended for use by a child.

    The toddler refused to share her favorite toy with the other kids.

    Each child received a small toy at the birthday party.

    Similarplaything

    Note

    The everyday sense has a surprisingly grown-up history. Fun and dalliance, the meaning kept in the old 'dalliance' sense, stand at the start of the story. The child's plaything sits at its center now, which is why a grown man with a toy draws a smile.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Amorous play and entertainment are early meanings, and amorous dalliance is an obsolete noun sense. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 2
    play idlyverbintransitive
    To handle or play with something idly, without serious attention.

    He toyed with his coffee cup, only half listening to the conversation.

    When he's nervous, he tends to toy with the loose button on his jacket.

    UsageFollowed by with: toy with your food, toyed with his keys.

    Similarfiddle, play, trifle, dally

    Note

    Sports writing uses it for easy dominance, so a forward toying with the English defense is playing with them at will. Spenser's Faerie Queene (1596) has Hercules toying with his mistress, the amorous coloring that the "love play" noun keeps.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, and 1596 is the first-publication year of Books IV–VI, which contain the cited passage. en.wikisource.org
    • Book V, Canto V describes Hercules toying amorously with his mistress. en.wikisource.org
    • The obsolete noun toy has the corresponding meaning of love play or amorous dalliance. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    think oververbintransitive
    To consider an idea or plan casually and tentatively, without committing to it.

    She toyed with the idea of moving abroad for several months.

    Many people toy with the idea of writing a novel but never begin.

    UsageMost often toy with the idea of + -ing: toy with the idea of moving abroad.

    Similarmull, muse, ponder, flirt

    Note

    It suggests tentative, unhurried thought, an option turned over without commitment, as in 'I have been toying with the idea of starting my own business.' That hesitation links it to idle handling: the idea is handled lightly, the way fingers fiddle with a cup.

  4. 4
    sex aidnouneuphemisticabbreviationellipsis
    Short form of sex toy: a device designed for sexual stimulation, used alone or with a partner.

    The couple shopped together for a toy to spice up their relationship.

    Reviews praised the toy for its quiet, discreet design.

    Note

    The euphemism works by leaving the sex out: toy alone stands for sex toy once the context has made the subject plain. Out of context, the bare word reads innocently as a child's plaything, which makes it discreet but also easy to misread.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

  5. 5
    worthless thingnouncountable
    A thing of little importance or value.

    The diamond ring was a toy to her, a bauble forgotten by next week.

    To a billionaire, a private jet is just another toy.

    UsageOften just a toy or a mere toy, said of something costly that matters little to its owner.

    Similartrifle, bauble, plaything, trinket

    Note

    Early Modern writers used it for anything pretty but slight. Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great has ''tis a pretie toy to be a Poet', half admiring and half dismissive. Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy lumps rings, jewels and girdles together as 'such toys'.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • The sense meaning something slight or unimportant was used in Early Modern English. en.wiktionary.org
    • Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine the Great. gutenberg.org
    • The quoted words occur in Tamburlaine the Great; the character speaking is Mycetes. en.wiktionary.org
    • Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy groups rings, jewels and girdles as 'such toys'. gutenberg.org
  6. 6
    too smalladjectivebefore a noun
    Impractical or unsuitable for real-world use because it is unrealistically small or simple.

    Engineers dismissed the prototype as a toy system unfit for industrial loads.

    The so-called encryption was a toy scheme any student could crack.

    Similarrudimentary, simplistic, trivial, flimsy

    Note

    It can also follow a verb and take a degree word, as when Alexander Meinke and colleagues (2024) call their test scenarios "quite toy." In technical writing it frankly admits simplification rather than insulting the work.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • Alexander Meinke coauthored the paper containing the quotation. arxiv.org
    • The paper was first published in 2024. arxiv.org
    • The authors describe their evaluation scenarios as 'quite toy'. arxiv.org
  7. 7
    small dognounabbreviationellipsis
    Short form of toy dog: a dog from one of the smallest breeds, such as a Chihuahua or Pomeranian.

    Breeders showed several toys at the kennel club competition.

    At the dog show, a tiny Pomeranian was named best toy, ahead of every other small breed.

    Note

    Clipped from the compound, the word is at home in breed talk, where it names one step in a size series. Jeff Griffen's The Poodle Book (1968) sets standards against 'miniatures and toys', using the word as an ordinary count noun with a regular plural. Outside a context about breeds, say toy dog in full, because the bare word could just as easily mean something a dog plays with.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

Practice

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Origin

Middle English toye meant "amorous play, a piece of fun or entertainment." It probably came from Middle Dutch toy, tuyg ("tools, apparatus, ornament"), the word seen in Dutch speel-tuig ("play-thing"). Further back it leads through Proto-Germanic to a root meaning "to pull or lead." German Zeug and Danish tøj, both meaning "stuff," are cognates.