toy

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 *teugą (“stuff, matter, device, gear, lever”, literally “that which is drawn or pulled”), from Proto-Germanic *teuhaną (“to lead, bring, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with German Zeug (“stuff”), Danish tøj (“stuff”). Related to tug, tow.

• IPA^(key): /tɔɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

toy (plural toys)

Children playing with a wooden toy car.

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.]
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene ii:

     tis a pretie toy to be a Poet.

   • 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:

     he had deflowered the abbess, and as many besides of the nuns as he could, and leaves him withal rings, jewels, girdles, and such toys to give them still, when they came to visit him.

3. A simple, light piece of music, written especially for the virginal. [16th–17th c.]
4. Short for toy dog.
   • 1968, Jeff Griffen, The Poodle Book, page 36:

     Since standards are large dogs, they grow much more rapidly than miniatures and toys, which means that they require more supplements.

5. (obsolete) Love play, amorous dalliance; fondling. [16th–18th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     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.

6. (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:
     , 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 […].

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:

     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: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

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

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC:

     Nor light and idle toys my lines may vainly swell.

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

     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.

   Synonym: toy mutch

   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     Having, moreover, put on her clean toy, rokelay, and scarlet plaid.

9. A sex toy (object or device to give sexual pleasure).
10. (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.

    • 2022 August 31, Babak Anvari, Namsi Khan, 15:22 from the start, in Babak Anvari, director, I Came By (film), spoken by Rave (Sean Rey):

      DAVE COLUMBO (played by Gabriel Bisset-Smith): So, Rave, you’re a graffiti artist. RAVE: Writer. Graffiti writer. There’s a difference. DAVE COLUMBO: What do you make of “I Came By”(the practice of robbing rich people’s houses and tagging them with the words “I came by”)? RAVE: I think whoever done it is a fucking toy. I heard it’s not the same crew anymore.

11. (slang, MLE) A gun.

    Synonym: bit (slang, MLE)

    • 2013 December 23, Stephen Reynolds, 48:02 from the start, in Stephen Reynolds, director, Vendetta (film), spoken by Ronnie (Nick Nevern):

      RONNIE: Now, that is a SIG Sauer P226. JIMMY VICKERS (played by Danny Dyer): Yeah, takes 19 in the clip. It’s effective up to 50 metres. RONNIE: Man knows his toys.

12. (slang, euphemistic, dated) The penis.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:penis

13. (slang, euphemistic, dated) The vagina.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vagina

14. (slang, dated) A watch.

    a toy and tackle (a watch and chain)

    • 1879 October, “Autobiography of a Thief in Thieves' Language”, in Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, number 240, page 505, column 2:

      Me and the other one went by ourselves; he was very tricky (clever) at getting a poge or a toy, but he would not touch toys because we was afraid of being turned over (searched).

    • 1896, Arthur Morrison, A Child of the Jago, London: Methuen & Co., page 239:

      And as it commonly took three men to secure a single watch in the open street—one to 'front,' one to snatch, and a third to take from the snatcher—the gains of the toy-getting trade were poor, except to the fence.

15. (slang, dated) A small jar (about an inch across) used to hold prepared opium.
    • 1915, George Bronson Howard, God's Man, Indianapolis, I.N.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 127:

      Sonia, with a woman's dainty deftness in small matters, dug out the chocolate-colored opium from a little white jar, a "toey," cooking it over a steady flame of peanut-oil.

    • 1928, May Churchill Sharpe [i.e., Chicago May], Chicago May: Her Story, New York, N.Y.: The Macaulay Company, pages 159–160:

      Chang was always on call, to go to Americans with "toys" of hop, ready to "cook," if desired by his patrons.

    • 1946, Mezz Mezzrow, Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, pages 253–254:

      I called up Mike and pleaded with him to bring me the joint (the layout) and put me out of my misery. Instead he came up with some medicine, a patent product called Wampoole's Mixture that was supposed to help you taper off the stuff. What you did was, you took a toy (a tin) of hop and shook it up with this medicine in a bottle and kept taking it every day. As the bottle got empty you kept filling it up again with more of the medicine, so the amount of hop kept going down and finally you were taking practically straight medicine.

16. (slang, dated) A small ball of opium (about the size of a pea).
    • 1989, David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, Don Des Jarlais, quoting Lao Pai-Hsing (translated interview), Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America, 1923-1965, Knoxville, T.N.: The University of Tennessee Press, →ISBN, page 84:

      I smoked a toy a day, same as on the ship. You could buy a small toy for two dollars.

    • 1991, Jimmy Breslin, Damon Runyon, New York, N.Y.: Ticknor & Fields, →ISBN, pages 176–177:

      The act at the Alamo began with Jackson sprawled on a chair and pretending to be smoking opium. He used a broom handle with a tin cup at the end as if he were cooking opium. There wasn't a patron in the joint who had to ask what they were pretending to do. When Jackson took small balls of wax and said he was making "toys," everybody laughed.

• See also Thesaurus:toy

toy (third-person singular simple present toys, present participle toying, simple past and past participle toyed)

1. (intransitive) To 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, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 24, page 246:

     His [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.

• Jonathon Green (2024) “toy n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Jonathon Green (2024) “toy n.²”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

• Tyo, yot

From Proto-Turkic *toy (“feast”).

• IPA^(key): /toj/

• Audio

  (file)

toy (definite accusative toyu, plural toylar)

1. wedding

toy

1. wedding feast
2. banquet

From Danish tøj, from Middle Low German tüg.

• IPA^(key): /tʰɔiː/, /tʰœiː/

toy n (genitive singular toys, uncountable)

1. fabric

• toi

toy

1. (in the singular, less formal) you

• (plural or polite singular): vous

• te
• tu

• IPA^(key): /toɪ/

From Ottoman Turkish طوی, attested in Turkic from the 11th century.

toy

1. immature, naive
2. amateur, unexperienced

toy (definite accusative toyu, plural toylar)

1. great bustard; Otis tarda

• tay

From Common Turkic *toy (“feast”).

• IPA^(key): /toj/

toy (definite accusative toyu, plural toylar)

1. (dated) feast, wedding

• “toy”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “toy1”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “طوی”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1264

toy (plural toylar)

1. foal