| 释义 |
▪ I. toy, n.|tɔɪ|
Forms: ? 4, 6–7 toye, 6– toy; pl. 6–7 toyes, toies, 6– toys.
[Toy n. and vb. (formerly toye) have been in common use since c 1530, when both are given by Palsgr., and used by Skelton and Tindale. But a single instance of toye n., apparently the same word, occurs in Robert of Brunne. It is difficult to conceive how such a word in use c 1300 should thus disappear for two centuries, and then should all at once burst into view with a wide sense-development. The etymology is equally problematic, and, in spite of current conjectures, must still be considered unascertained: see Note below.]
I. Abstract senses, meaning action, act, notion, feeling.
†1. Amorous sport, dallying, toying; with pl., an act or piece of amorous sport, a light caress.
[1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 7891 Whedyr hyt be yn a womman handlyng, Or yn any oþer lusty þyng;..Amendeþ ȝow, pur charyte, And makeþ nat a-mys þe toye [so all MSS.], Þat þe fende of ȝou haue Ioye. ]1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Amo: Amatoriæ leuitates, Louers toyes. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vi. 37 A foe of folly and immodest toy. 1594― Epithal. 365 For greedy pleasure, carelesse of your toyes, Thinks more upon her paradise of joyes, Then what ye do. 1594Willobie Avisa xlvii. iii, These toyes in tyme will make her yielde. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 1034 So said he, and forbore not glance or toy, Of amorous intent, well understood Of Eve. 1668G. Etherege She Would if She Could ii. ii, Her toy was such, that every touch Would make a lover madder. 1707Ward Hud. Rediv. ii. ii. 8 (Farmer) Kisses, Love-Toys, and am'rous Prattle.
†2. A sportive or frisky movement; a piece of fun, amusement, or entertainment; a fantastic act or practice; an antic, a trick. Obs.
a1500H. Medwall Nature i. 786 (Brandl), Though I say yt a praty boy..He maketh me laugh wyth many a toy, The vrchyn ys so mad. Ibid. 1001 He that wold lordshyp enioy And playe euer styll the old boy Me semeth he doth but make a toy. 1530Tindale Answ. More Wks. (1572) 249/1 We heare but voyces with out signification,..& wonder at disguisings & toyes wherof we know no meanyng. c1555Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (Camden) 291 Neither was there ever any bearwards Jackanapes that made more pastime and toys to the people, than this. 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 9 Somtyme croweth he like a cocke, somtyme barketh he like a dogge, and many such foolish toyes vseth he. c1575Perfect Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (1886) 15 Lest she get a toye of flinginge her head. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle v. 1948 Are apish tricks and toies, which vse to bring Men in dirision, sportes to breed delight? 1777Horæ Subsec. 437 (E.D.D.) He hath taken a toy to scratch his head, when he is speaking to a gentleman.
3. a. A fantastic or trifling speech or piece of writing; a frivolous or mocking speech; a foolish or idle tale; a funny story or remark, a jest, joke, pun; a light or facetious composition. arch.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. i. Diogenes §79 Nothyng but a toye, in daliyng with the affinitee and similitude of woordes. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) A iv, Suche as seeke the greatest praise for writyng of Bookes, should doe beste..to write foolishe toyes, for then the moste parte would best esteme them. 1577Breton Flourish on Fancie (Grosart) 11/2 Toyes of straung deuise, With stories of olde Robin Hood. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 3, I neuer may beleeue These anticke fables, nor these Fairy toyes. 1621Molle Camerar. Liv. Libr. iii. xx. 215 They gaue credit to all these foolish toies. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) I. 126 Fye George, she crys, these Words are but Toys.
arch.1821Scott Kenilw. xvi, Think of what that arch⁓knave Shakspeare says—a plague on him, his toys come into my head when I should think of other matters. 1905R. Garnett Shakespeare 104 She hath heard A little toy of thine, a comedy ('Tis called, I think, The Taming of a Shrew).
b. † (a) A light, frivolous, or lively tune. Obs. (b) A particular turn or phrase of melody in a bird's song: see quot. 1851.
1591Greene Art Conny Catch. iii. (1592) 19 In the time of ceissing betweene the seuerall toyes and fancies hee plaied. 1641Sanderson Serm., Ad Aulam xiii. (1660) II. 267 One would have a grave Pavane, another a nimbler Galliard, a third some striking toy or Jigg. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) III. 14 There are four-and-twenty changes in a linnet's song... It sings ‘toys’, as we call them.
†4.
a. A foolish or idle fancy; a fantastic notion, odd conceit; a whim, crotchet, caprice. Obs.
c1530H. Rhodes Bk. Nurture 330 in Babees Bk. (1868) 80 Cast not thyne eyes to ne yet fro, as thou werte full of toyes. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. x. 225 This people [Tartarres] hath many supersticious toyes. 1563B. Googe Eglogs vii. (Arb.) 59 But yf a toye com in your Brayne, your mynde is altered quyght. 1591Florio 2nd Fruites 161 Euen as the toy takes me in the head. 1642Rogers Naaman 98 So deadly doth this conceit and toy of his owne braine worke with him. 1668R. L'Estrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 101 Yet when the Toy took them, they'd make now and then a Sally. 1699― Fables ii. vii. (1715) II. 5 A New Marry'd Couple had a Toy took them in their Heads, so soon as ever the Office was over, to Shrift one another before they came together.
†b. spec. A foolish or unreasoning dislike or aversion: esp. in phr. to take (a) toy (in quot. 1612 = to take fright, start, shy) at something. Obs.
a1593Marlowe Hero & Leander v. Wks. (Rtldg.) 304/2 [To hear this] Made the well-spoken nymph take such a toy That down she sunk. 1612Two Noble K. v. iv. 79 The hot horse, hot as fire, Took Toy at this. 1647Sanderson Serm., Ad Aulam xiv. (1660) II. 277 Common friends many times..take toy at a trifle,..and pick quarrels to desert us. 1697J. Sergeant Solid Philos. 308 Thence they take a Toy at Metaphysics, and pretend it insuperably hard and mysterious.
II. Concrete senses.
(Sense 5 is also often abstract, connecting I and II; the connexion of 10 with the other senses is doubtful.)
5. gen. A thing of little or no value or importance, a trifle; a foolish or senseless affair, a piece of nonsense; pl. trumpery, rubbish. (In mod. use regarded as fig. from next sense.)
1530Palsgr. 281/2 Toy a tryfell, truffe, friuolle. 1538Elyot, Abydena, trifles, thinges of smalle estimation, wanton toyes, thynges vnseemely for menne to vse. 1587Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 166 To stand vpon such toies would spend much time. 1605Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 91 From this instant, There's nothing serious in Mortalitie: All is but Toyes. 1631Gouge God's Arrows i. §29. 44 Of Popish toyes to pacifie God. 1664H. More Myst. Iniq., Apol. 554 If they leave not off their animosities and asperities of mind about toys and trifles. 1719Watts Hymn, ‘Come, holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove’ ii, Look, how we grovel here below, Find of these earthly Toys. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair ix, But a title and a coach and four are toys more precious than happiness in Vanity Fair.
6. A material object for children or others to play with (often an imitation of some familiar object); a plaything; also, something contrived for amusement rather than for practical use (esp. in phrase a mere toy). In quot. a 1586 playing toy. Now the leading sense, to which the others are referred.
a1586Sidney Arcadia iv. Wks. 1725 II. 771 There was never poor scholar, that having instead of his book some playing toy about him, did more suddenly cast it from him. 1598R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 152 The rattles and toyes which children use to play with. a1656Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. (1851) 111 We cry for every toy, even that which may most hurt us. 1672R. Wild Poet. Licent. 29 We all know Popes-head-Alley trades in Toyes, Our Merchants come not thither, but our Boys. 1781Cowper Hope 128 Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away. 1881Stevenson Virg. Puerisque, Child's Play (1905) 157 Lead soldiers, dolls, all toys, in short, are in the same category. 1893J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (1907) 14 The very low-priced sets [of photographic apparatus]..are generally mere toys.
fig.1893Liddon, etc. Life Pusey I. xvi. 363 He handles it with the delight that a new mental toy inspires in most men at a certain time of life.
7. a. A small article of little intrinsic value, but prized as an ornament or curiosity; ‘a petty commodity’ (J.), a knick-knack, trinket, gewgaw; hence (often in allusion to 6) applied to anything small, flimsy, or inferior of its kind (now chiefly attrib.: see 12 b).
1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 67 Heere is the cap... Why 'tis a cockle or a walnut-shell, A knacke, a toy, a tricke, a babies cap. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia i. 3 We presented him with diuers toyes, which he kindly accepted. c1630Hales Serm. John xviii. 36 Rem. (1673) 154 So like one another, that one of them must wear a toy in his cap, that so the spectators may distinguish them. 1711in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 139 A weak town, haveing noe outward works, but a toy of a pallisade before a litle part of the wall. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull iii. i, Ladies, hung about with toys and trinkets. 1768Tom Thumb's Folio i. 4 His Father was greatly disconcerted at having such a little tiney Toy of a Child. 1888Black Houseboat xi, Perched on the top of a hill was a conspicuous toy of a church.
b. Applied technically to small steel articles, as hammers, pincers, buckles, button-hooks, nails, etc. More fully ‘steel toys’ (? i.e. steel petty things).
1833J. Holland Manuf. Metal II. 319 Heavy Steel Toys. By this not very appropriate description the Birmingham manufacturers refer to a class of articles... To enumerate all the ‘toys’ of this class would be to transcribe a large list of miscellaneous cheap and useful wares, from a joiner's hammer to a shoemaker's tack. The pincers of the last-named workman, and the edged nippers..in use for breaking up loaf-sugar, are both of them well-known specimens.
c. Thieves' slang. A watch; toy and tackle, a watch and chain. Cf. toy-getter (see 12 d).
1826Sessions Papers 21 Sept. 546/2 James Boyce..said ‘The b—g—r has got no toy’; I had no watch. 1877Horsley Jottings fr. Jail i. (1887) 17 He was very tricky at getting a poge or a toy, but he would not touch toys because we was afraid of being turned over.
d. U.S. slang. A small tin or jar containing opium; the quantity of opium held in such a container.
1934Detective Fiction Weekly 21 Apr. 114/1 Toy, small receptacle for opium. 1951Suggestions for Teaching Nature & Effects of Narcotics (U.S. Board of Education) 9 It [sc. opium] is usually sold in round tin salve containers, about the size of a five-cent piece, and is known as a ‘toy’. 1955U.S. Senate Hearings (1956) VIII. 4161 The containers thereof are known as ‘toys’ (small jars or like containers). 1961Dissent VIII. 349 Opium itself is often available. However, it is expensive ($15–20 for a toy, a ball about the size of a large pea).
8. fig. Applied to a person:
a. (from 5) slightingly or contemptuously; in quot. 1822 affectionately = pet, darling (cf. 7);
b. (from 6) as being used as a plaything or for sport.
1598Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 46 Elues, list your names: Silence, you aiery toyes. 1616B. Jonson Devil an Ass iv. vii, I ha' sworne to ha' him by the eares: I feare The toy, wi' not do me right. 1681Dryden Span. Friar iv. ii, O, Vertue! Vertue!..That men should leave thee for that Toy, a Woman? 1821Byron Mar. Fal. i. ii, Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy. 1822T. Mitchell Aristoph. II. 171 Why, Xanthias, my toy, Why, what ails the poor boy! 1883Stepniak in Contemp. Rev. Sept. 317 A Russian..being a mere toy in the hands of the commonest policeman. 1888Stevenson Black Arrow 46 This toy..that's not fit for wounds or warfare.
9. Applied to a diminutive breed or variety of animals.
a. Short for toy dog: see 12 c.
1876All Year Round 15 Jan. 377/1 ‘Toys’ repose on velvet cushions. 1877Field 24 Feb. 214/2 In toys no great change has taken place, except that..pugs, Italian greyhounds, and toy terriers are on the decline. 1899Pall Mall G. 3 Oct. 9/1 Ladies' toys were in strong force... Sporting dogs were not numerous. 1903Daily Chron. 25 May 5/2 The ‘chiens de luxe’, or Toys, are in a roomy and well-warmed ‘pavillon’ by themselves.
b. Any dwarf variety of tame pigeon.
1855[see hyacinth 3 b]. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl. s.v., The toys resemble the tumblers in general build and are among pigeons what bantams are among fowl.
10. Sc. A close cap or head-dress, of linen or wool, with flaps coming down to the shoulders, formerly worn by women of the lower classes in Scotland. ? Obs. Also toy-mutch (12 d). [In this sense perh. = Du. tooi attire, dress: see Note below.]
(The English quots. 1611, 1612, are placed here as perh. suggesting the origin; but they may belong to 7.)
[1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 326 Any Silke, any Thred, any Toyes for your head? 1612Two Noble K. i. iii, On my head no toy But was her pattern.] 1724Ramsay Tea-t. Misc. (1762) 2 Their toys and mutches were sae clean, They glanced in our ladses' een. 1793Statist. Acc. Scot. IX. 325 The tenants wives wore toys of linen of the coarsest kind, upon their heads, when they went to church, fairs or market. 1816Scott Old Mort. xxxix, The face of Alison..now presented itself, enveloped in a ‘toy’. 1824― Redgauntlet Let. iv, An elderly woman, in a grey stuff gown, with a check apron and ‘toy’. 1900H. G. Graham Soc. Life Scot. in 18th C. v. vi. (1901) 181 Farmers' wives and daughters with ‘toys’ or head-covering of coarse linen.
11. pl. At Winchester College, a bureau or desk; hence, a cubicle used as a study.
1816Hist. Colleges Winchester, Eton & Westminster 43 Besides his scob, every boy has, in the chamber to which he belongs, another receptacle for his books, with convenience for writing, &c. denominated, in the language of the place, Toys. 1901Public School Mag. VII. 158/1 A series of small compartments, semi-secluded, but answering in their way to private studies. Each of these little dens is known as ‘Toys’. 1974K. Clark Another Part of Wood ii. 74 We all sat in the same large enclosure, round the walls of which were small partitions (known as toyes) like uncomfortable polling booths, with just enough room for two shelves, one to serve as a seat and the other as a desk.
III. 12. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. That is a toy (in sense 6): applied to small models or imitations of ordinary objects used as playthings, as toy boat, toy cannon, toy dog, toy engine, toy horse, toy house, toy man, toy pistol, toy train, toy trumpet, toy woman, etc.
a1860Alb. Smith Lond. Med. Stud. (1861) 13 A stethescope—a curious instrument, something like a sixpenny toy-trumpet with its top knocked off. 1880Mrs. F. D. Bridges Jrnl. Lady's Trav. round World xviii. (1883) 298 One never quite gets over the impression of being amongst dolls and living in a toy-house..in Japan. 1883Toy pistol [see amorce]. 1888Hasluck Model Engin. Handybk. iii. (1900) 24 The most simple form of toy-engine is that illustrated below. 1889Toy pistol [see amorce]. 1897Edin. Rev. Oct. 480 The babies had toy-animals on wheels. 1978N. Freeling Night Lords ii. 11 The bandits..were pathetic imbeciles armed with toy pistols.
b. transf. and fig. Applied to things of diminutive size, flimsy construction, or petty character, as if intended for sport or diversion rather than serious use.
1821Scott Kenilw. xli, You go not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder; you will sleep to-night in better security. 1855H. Martineau Autobiog. I. 437 My surprise at the smallness and toy-character of Abbotsford was extreme. 1895M. E. Braddon in Westm. Gaz. 6 Nov. 1/3 A very popular writer may launch three of these toy-pinnaces in a year. 1897Gladstone E. Crisis 5 The Concert of Europe included toy-demonstrations, which might be made under the condition that they should not pass into reality. 1909Daily Chron. 19 Feb. 3/2 Ruritana was something more than the first toy-kingdom of our modern stage.
c. Applied to an animal, esp. a dog of a diminutive breed or variety, kept as a pet, e.g. a toy spaniel or toy terrier.
1806M. Lewis Jrnl. 1 July in Orig. Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Expedition (1905) V. 178 [Barking squirrels] will generally set and bark at you.., their note being much that of the little toy dogs. 1863Sat. Rev. 28 Mar. 408/1 These very large dogs are not much more useful than the very small ones which are called, with perfect aptness, toy dogs. 1872B. Clayton Dogs 20 A Toy Terrier was exhibited which weighed only six ounces. 1889G. Stables Dog Owners' Kennel Comp. vi. §10. 66 There are several other kinds of Toy Terriers..but I need only mention..the Toy Black and Tan and the Toy Blue or Slate colour.
d. Comb.: attrib. (of or for toys), as toy-box, toy-cupboard, toy-fair, toy-land, toy-manufacture, toy-trade; objective and obj. gen., as toy-maker, toy-making, toy-turner; instrumental, similative, etc., as toy-bewitched, toy-like, toy-sized adjs.; also toy-block, one of a set of wooden or papier-mâché blocks, usually with letters or designs, for children to play with; toy book U.S., a children's book; toy-boy slang, a good-looking youth who is ‘kept’ by an older woman (or occas. man) as a lover; the younger partner of an older woman; toy-getter (Thieves' slang), a watch-stealer; so toy-getting, † toy-headed a., having ‘toys’ or odd fancies in the head, crotchety; toy-line = toy-railway; toy-mutch Sc. = sense 10; † toy-pate, a head full of ‘toys’, crotchets, or frivolities (cf. toy-headed); toy-railway, (a) a model of a railway, with its engine, train, etc.; (b) pop., a small narrow-gauge railway, often orig. constructed for the use of slate-works or the like, but subseq. carrying tourists or other passengers; also toy-line; toy-service, a church-service at which toys are brought as an offering for sick or poor children; toy soldier, a small model of a soldier; also fig.; toy theatre, a miniature theatre in which the characters are represented by printed pictures mounted on card or wood; also fig.; toy time, at Winchester College, time allocated for work in toys (see sense 11 above); toy-woman, a woman who keeps a toy-shop. See also toyman, -shop, -town, -wort.
1794Coleridge Relig. Musings vii, We become An anarchy of Spirits. *Toy-bewitched.
1891Cent. Dict., *Toy-block, one of a set of small blocks,..forming a play⁓thing for children.
1801M. L. Weems Let. 10 Mar. in E. Skeel M. L. Weems (1929) II. 177, I sell the Primers & *toy books wholesale at great discount. 1865(title) Aunt Louisa's Toy Books.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vi, He descries lying far below, embosomed among its groves and green natural bulwarks, and all diminished to a *toybox, the fair Town.
1981Event 9 Oct. 29/4 *Toy-boy, the youthful lover of an ageing woman. 1983Financial Times 31 Mar. 19/4 At the start he is observed as Caesar's toy boy, stripped for the religious ceremony. 1987News of the World 15 Nov. 32/2 At 48 she is like a teenage girl again—raving it up with four different lovers including a toyboy of 27!
1900Westm. Gaz. 11 Dec. 12/1 The season for the ransacking of *toy-cupboards.
1908Westm. Gaz. 29 Oct. 1/2 The order..that there shall be no *toy-fairs in London this Christmas⁓tide deprives the City of..one of its sights.
1879Macmillan's Mag. Oct. 502/1 The following people used to go in there—*toy-getters (watch-stealers), mags⁓men [etc.]. 1896A. Morrison Child of the Jago 102 Dicky knew the small man for a good toy-getter.
1896A. Morrison Child of Jago xxiv. 239 The gains of the *toy-getting trade were poor, except to the fence.
1633T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 1 It sticks upon the stomach of some *toy-headed professors.
1908Daily Chron. 5 Nov. 7/5 No one realises unless he penetrates into *Toyland how much whimsical humour, how much scientific skill and craftsman's ingenuity are devoted to the invention of the playthings for the festive season.
1818Scott Hrt. Midl. i, The gay glancing of the equipage, its diminished and *toy-like appearance at a distance. 1883Manch. Exam. 26 Nov. 5/3 The Swiss lake steamers are..too toy-like to ensure their passengers against reasonably probable risks.
1878Jenkinson Guide N. Wales 271 Leaving the Cambrian train at Mynffordd Junction, the traveller walks up a path to the *toy line, and enters one of the little carriages.
1859Habits of Gd. Society v. (new ed.) 194 Worth all the amusements which a *toy-maker could dream of.
1858Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ix. iii. (1872) III. 87 *Toy-manufactures of those simple people.
1742Forbes Dominie Depos'd ii. i, The *toy-mutch maun then gae on, Nae mair bare-hair'd.
1693Penn Maxims lx. Wks. 1726 I. 847 He never deals but in substantial Ware, and leaves the rest for the *Toy-Pates (or Shops) of the World.
1892Baddeley Guide N. Wales (ed. 4) 165 heading, Portmadoc to Ffestiniog by the ‘*Toy’ Railway. Ibid., No orthodox tourist visits Wales without taking a turn..on the ‘Toy’ railway. 190.Guide to Lynton, Lynmouth, etc. Introd. 19 heading, Barnstaple to Lynton by the Toy Railway.
1889Standard 1 Feb., ‘*Toy Services’ which are becoming very popular in some of our churches.
1895C. Holland Jap. Wife (ed. 11) 27 *Toy-sized cups of tea.
1850Dickens in Househ. Words Extra Christmas No. 291/2 The lazy-tongs that used to bear the *toy soldiers. 1922M. Arlen Piracy iii. xi. 232 Poor Hugo..has gone clucking back for to be a toy soldier at Aldershot. 1980Listener 19 June 796/1 A shopful of toy soldiers cast from the same lead mould.
1850Dickens in Househ. Words Extra Christmas No. 292/1 Out of this delight springs the *toy theatre,..with its familiar proscenium, and..boxes. 1931A. C. Ward Found. Eng. Prose iii. 98 Stevenson loved to play with toy-theatres, and all his novels, with one exception, are reflected through the toy⁓theatre temperament: life is not in them. 1978A. & P. Miall Victorian Christmas Bk. 30 The toy theatre..was similar to the kind..still being made by Pollocks of London. The printed figures and scenery were cut out and applied to wooden backings.
1881W. H. David in C. E. Pascoe Everyday Life in our Public Schools 84 The clock marking 7, each junior retires to his ‘toys’ or bureau, for an hour and a half—during what is known as ‘*toy-time’, when the work of the next morning and the week's composition have to be prepared. 1901Public School Mag. VII. 158/1 Thus we find that from seven o'clock to half-past eight is ‘toy-time’.
1757W. Thompson R.N. Advoc. 41 Our Sons of War are to be served after our Sons of *Toy-Trade.
1893A. N. Palmer Hist. Wrexham IV. 11, I find mentioned..one *toy-turner.
1827Scott Diary 2 Oct., in Lockhart, An old lady, who proved a *toy woman in Edinburgh. [Note. Eduard Müller suggested the identity of toy with Du. tooi, late MDu. tôi, 16th c., ‘attire, ornament, finery, dress’, which suits the form, but hardly the sense (exc. ? in 10 or 7). Others have thought of Du. tuig ‘harness, horse-trappings’, in pl. ‘sails, rigging, implements, tools; stuff, lumber, refuse, trash’; in Kilian 1599 tuygh, dial. tuych, tugh, ‘arms, implements, armaments, impedimenta, ornaments’, = Ger. zeug ‘apparatus, tools, gear, furniture, stuff, trash, etc.’, LG. tüg, tüüg, MLG. tûch, tûg. But, if the sense-development shown above is historically correct, it is difficult to see in either of these suggestions, the origin of the English word. It is indeed true that Du. speeltuig, Ger. spielzeug, and Da. legetoi, mean ‘play-tool or implement, plaything, toy’, and that Sidney in 1586 used ‘playing toy’, which might conceivably be a rendering of one of these compounds; but this would still leave the earlier English history unexplained.]
Add:[III.] [12.] [d.] toy library, a collection of toys which may be borrowed by or for children.
1969Gravesend Reporter 9 May 3/1 The Thames-side *Toy Library, the second of its kind in the country, opened on Saturday. 1990J. Solomon Green Parenting iv. 70 Toy libraries..are a useful way of cutting down on toy consumption.
▸ colloq. (chiefly Brit. and Austral.). to throw (also chuck) one's toys out of the pram (also cot) and variants: to behave childishly and petulantly; to throw a tantrum; to sulk.
1989Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 26 Aug. (Great Weekend section) 6/5 The woman was too much. I wanted to throw my toys out of the cot. 2000Racing Post (Nexis) 12 July 8 The Channel 4 board aren't chucking toys out of the pram, they are genuinely exasperated. 2003Heat 4 Jan. 113/1 You could help your romantic cause by not throwing your toys out of the pram every time things don't go your way.
▪ II. toy, v.
[Goes with toy n., q.v.]
1. intr. To act idly or without seriousness; to trifle, ‘play’, deal carelessly (with a person or thing); also † to make sport, mock (obs.).
a1529Skelton Bowge of Courte 290 It was no tyme with him to jape nor toye. 1530Palsgr. 758/2, I toye, or tryfell with one, I deale nat substancyally with hym, je me truffe. 1549–62Sternhold & H. Ps. xxxv. 16 Yea abject slaves at me did toy with mocks and cheekes ful stout. 1563Homilies ii. Inform. H. Script. i. (1859) 373 It is a shame that christian men should be so light headed, to toy as ruffians do with such manner of speeches. 1576Dering Expos. Heb. v. 4–6. Cc iij, They must haue oyle, candels..wine and water,..trifled and toyed with all. 1653W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 19, I fear I do toy in recording these vain Objections. 1868Dixon Spir. Wives I. vii. 75 He toyed with astrology, and had fitful dreams of enjoying the elixir of life. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. lxxxi. 296 [Class issues] are usually toyed with by both parties alike.
b. So to toy it.
1657J. Sergeant Schism Dispach't 379 Thus Dr. H. toyes it with his Readers. Ibid. 574 Let them not toy it now.
2. To sport amorously; to dally, flirt. Usually const. with. (Cf. toy n. 1.)
15..Song Bachelor's Life 7 (Ritson) If he [the married man] be merie and toy with any, His wife will frowne, and words geve manye. 1566in Daily News 10 Sept. (1897) 6/7 That none toy with the maids, on paine of 4d. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 106 And for my sake [he] hath learnd to sport, and daunce, To toy, to wanton, dallie, smile, and iest. c1613Middleton No Wit like Woman's v. i, Not toy, nor bill, and imitate house-pigeons. 1727Gay Begg. Op. i. viii, O Polly you might have toy'd and kist. 1811W. R. Spencer Poems 73 Whilst he and Psyche toy'd together.
fig.1793Wordsw. Descr. Sketches 52 To where the Alps, ascending white in air, Toy with the Sun, and glitter from afar. 1842H. Rogers Ess. I. i. 4 He had in early life toyed a little with the muses.
3. To play, sport, amuse oneself; to move sportively, play or frisk about.
1530Palsgr. 758/2, I toye, I playe with one, je me joue. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. ix. 35 But other some could not abide to toy; All pleasaunce was to them griefe and annoy. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. §44. 674 The senseless atoms, playing and toying up and down without any care or thought. 1827Pollok Course T. v. 1007 The hare, unscared Sported and toyed familiar with his dog. 1836O. W. Holmes Poetry ii. 18 Pale dreamers, whose fantastic lay Toys with smooth trifles like a child at play. 1848Kingsley Saint's Trag. ii. iv. 63, I have toyed too long..down the stream of life.
b. toy with: to play with (a material object), to handle or finger idly; hence, to work idly or carelessly with or at.
1822W. Irving Braceb. Hall xxvi. (1845) 121 The gallant general took his station.. at her side, and toyed with her elegantly ornamented work-bag. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge lxiv, The fire was seen sporting and toying with the door. 1879E. Garrett House by Works I. 115 Mrs. Pendlebury looked down, and toyed with her rings.
4. trans. (with adv.) To spend or waste in toying; to bring by toying (into or out of some condition).
1575Abp. Parker Corr. (Parker Soc.) 474, I toy out my time, partly with copying books. 1685J. Scott Chr. Life ii. 134 So fools and fleers on, till he hath toyed and laughed himself out of all sense of Religion. 1749Johnson Irene i. i, He toys his hours away. |
