Forms: ? 4, 6–7 toye, 6– toy; Pl. 6–7 toyes, toies, 6– toys. [TOY sb. 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 sb., 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.
[1303. R. 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.]
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Amo: Amatoriæ leuitates, Louers toyes.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 37. A foe of folly and immodest toy. Ibid. (1594), Epithal., 365. For greedy pleasure, carelesse of your toyes, Thinks more upon her paradise of joyes, Then what ye do.
1594. Willobie, Avisa, XLVII. iii. These toyes in tyme will make her yielde.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 1034. So said he, and forbore not glance or toy, Of amorous intent, well understood Of Eve.
1668. Etheredge, She Would if She Could, II. ii. Her toy was such, that every touch Would make a lover madder.
1707. Ward, 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.
a. 1500. 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.
1530. Tindale, Answ. More, Wks. (1572), 249/1. We heare but voyces with out signification,… & wonder at disguisings & toyes wherof we know no meanyng.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (Camden), 291. Neither was there ever any bearwards Jackanapes that made more pastime and toys to the people, than this.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 9. Somtyme croweth he like a cocke, somtŷme barketh he like a dogge, and many such foolish toyes vseth he.
c. 1575. Perfect Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (1886), 15. Lest she get a toye of flinginge her head.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, v. 1948. Are apish tricks and toies, which vse to bring Men in dirision, sportes to breed delight?
1777. Horæ Subsec., 437 (E.D.D.). He hath taken a toy to scratch his head, when he is speaking to a gentleman.
3. 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.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., I. Diogenes, § 79. Nothyng but a toye, in daliyng with the affinitee and similitude of woordes.
1553. T. 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.
1577. Breton, Flourish on Fancie (Grosart), 11/2. Toyes of straung deuise, With stories of olde Robin Hood.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 3. I neuer may beleeue These anticke fables, nor these Fairy toyes.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., III. xx. 215. They gaue credit to all these foolish toies.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), I. 126. Fye George, she crys, these Words are but Toys.
arch. 1821. Scott, 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.
1905. R. 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.
1591. Greene, Art Conny Catch., III. (1592), 19. In the time of ceissing betweene the seuerall toyes and fancies hee plaied.
1641. Sanderson, Serm., Ad Aulam, xiii. (1660), II. 267. One would have a grave Pavane, another a nimbler Galliard, a third some striking toy or Jigg.
1851. Mayhew, 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 foolish or idle fancy; a fantastic notion, odd conceit; a whim, crotchet, caprice. Obs.
c. 1530. H. Rhodes, Bk. Nurture, 330, in Babees Bk. (1868), 80. Cast not thyne eyes to ne yet fro, as thou werte full of toyes.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, II. x. 225. This people [Tartarres] hath many supersticious toyes.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs, vii. (Arb.), 59. But yf a toye com in your Brayne, your mynde is altered quyght.
1591. Florio, 2nd Fruites, 161. Euen as the toy takes me in the head.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 98. So deadly doth this conceit and toy of his owne braine worke with him.
1668. R. L’Estrange, Vis. Quev. (1708), 101. Yet when the Toy took them, they’d make now and then a Sally. Ibid. (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.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Hero & Leander, v. Wks. (Rtldg.), 304/2. [To hear this] Made the well-spoken nymph take such a toy, That down she sunk.
1612. Two Noble K., V. iv. 79. The hot horse, hot as fire, Took Toy at this.
1647. Sanderson, Serm., Ad Aulam, xiv. (1660), II. 277. Common friends many times … take toy at a trifle, and pick quarrels to desert us.
1697. J. 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 connection 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.)
1530. Palsgr., 281/2. Toy a tryfell, truffe, friuolle.
1538. Elyot, Abydena, trifles, thinges of smalle estimation, wanton toyes, thynges vnseemely for menne to vse.
1587. Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 166. To stand vpon such toies would spend much time.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 91. From this instant, There’s nothing serious in Mortalitie: All is but Toyes.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, I. § 29. 44. Of Popish toyes to pacifie God.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., Apol., 554. If they leave not off their animosities and asperities of mind about toys and trifles.
1719. Watts, Hymn, ‘Come, holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,’ ii. Look, how we grovel here below, Fond of these earthly Toys.
1848. Thackeray, 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.
a. 1586. Sidney, 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.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 152. The rattles and toyes which children use to play with.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Occas. Medit. (1851), 111. We cry for every toy, even that which may most hurt us.
1672. R. Wild, Poet. Licent., 29. We all know Popes-head-Alley trades in Toyes, Our Merchants come not thither, but our Boys.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 128. Men deal with life as children with their play, Who first misuse, then cast their toys away.
1881. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque, Child’s Play (1905), 157. Lead soldiers, dolls, all toys, in short, are in the same category.
1893. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (1907), 14. The very low-priced sets [of photographic apparatus] … are generally mere toys.
fig. 1893. Liddon, 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 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 11 b).
1596. Shaks., 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.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 3. We presented him with diuers toyes, which he kindly accepted.
c. 1630. Hales, 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.
1711. in 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.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, III. i. Ladies, hung about with toys and trinkets.
1768. Tom Thumb’s Folio, i. 4. His Father was greatly disconcerted at having such a little tiney Toy of a Child.
1888. Black, 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).
1833. J. 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 11 d).
1877. Horsley, 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.
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.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., V. v. 46. Elues, list your names: Silence, you aiery toyes.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, IV. vii. I ha’ sworne to ha’ him by the eares: I feare The toy, wi’ not do me right.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, IV. ii. O, Vertue! Vertue!… That men should leave thee for that Toy, a Woman?
1821. Byron, Mar. Fal., I. ii. Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy.
1822. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., II. 171. Why, Xanthias, my toy, Why, what ails the poor boy!
1883. Stepniak, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 317. A Russian … being a mere toy in the hands of the commonest policeman.
1888. Stevenson, 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 II c.
1845. Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, 18 Feb., 2/1. Its [the prairie dog’s] yelp, which resembles that of a little toy dog seems its only canine attribute.
1877. Field, 24 Feb., 214/2. In toys no great change has taken place, except that … pugs, Italian greyhounds, and toy terriers are on the decline.
1899. Pall Mall G., 3 Oct., 9/1. Ladies’ toys were in strong force…. Sporting dogs were not numerous.
1903. Daily 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.
1902. Cent. 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 (11 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.)
[1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 326. Any Silke, any Thred, any Toyes for your head?
1612. Two Noble K., I. iii. On my head no toy But was her pattern.]
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1762), 2. Their toys and mutches were sae clean, They glanced in our ladses’ een.
1793. Statist. 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.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xxxix. The face of Alison … now presented itself, enveloped in a ‘toy.’ Ibid. (1824), Redgauntlet, Let. iv. An elderly woman, in a grey stuff gown, with a check apron and ‘toy.’
1900. H. G. Graham, Soc. Life Scot. in 18th C., V. vi. (1901), 181. Farmers’ wives and daughters with ‘toys’ or head-covering of coarse linen.
III. 11. 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, cannon, dog, engine, horse, house, man, train, trumpet, woman, etc.
1836. [Miss Maitland], Lett. fr. Madras, iv. (1843), 25. Cape Town is just like the Dutch toy-towns.
a. 1860. Alb. Smith, Lond. Med. Stud. (1861), 13. A stethescope—a curious instrument, something like a sixpenny toy-trumpet with its top knocked off.
1880. Mrs. 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.
1888. Hasluck, Model Engin. Handybk., iii. (1900), 24. The most simple form of toy-engine is that illustrated below.
1897. Edin. Rev., Oct., 480. The babies had toy-animals on wheels.
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.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xli. You go not to your gew-gaw toy-house yonder, you will sleep to-night in better security.
1855. Ht. Martineau, Autobiog., I. 437. My surprise at the smallness and toy-character of Abbotsford was extreme.
1895. Miss Braddon, in Westm. Gaz., 6 Nov., 1/3. A very popular writer may launch three of these toy-pinnaces in a year.
1897. Gladstone, E. Crisis, 5. The Concert of Europe included toy-demonstrations, which might be made under the condition that they should not pass into reality.
1909. Daily Chron., 19 Feb., 3/2. Ruritania 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 terrier.
1863. Sat. Rev., 28 March, 408/1. These very large dogs are not much more useful than the very small ones which are called, with perfect aptness, toy dogs.
1872. B. Clayton, Dogs, 20. A Toy Terrier was exhibited which weighed only six ounces.
1889. G. 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, -cupboard, -fair, -land, -manufacture, -trade; objective and obj. gen., as toy-maker, -making, -turner; instrumental, similative, etc., as toy-bewitched, -like, -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-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-woman, a woman who keeps a toy-shop. See also TOYMAN, -SHOP, -WORT.
1794. Coleridge, Relig. Musings, vii. We become An anarchy of Spirits. *Toy-bewitched.
1891. Cent. Dict., *Toy-block, one of a set of small blocks,… forming a plaything for children.
1865. (title) Aunt Louisa’s *Toy Books.
1831. Carlyle, 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.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 11 Dec., 12/1. The season for the ransacking of *toy-cupboards.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 29 Oct., 1/2. The order … that there shall be no *toy-fairs in London this Christmastide deprives the City of … one of its sights.
1896. A. Morrison, Child of the Jago, 102. Dicky knew the small man for a good *toy-getter.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter ii. 1. It sticks upon the stomach of some *toy-headed professors.
1908. Daily 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.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., i. The gay glancing of the equipage, its diminished and *toy-like appearance at a distance.
1883. Manch. Exam., 26 Nov., 5/3. The Swiss lake steamers are … too toy-like to ensure their passengers against reasonably probable risks.
1878. Jenkinson, 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.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, v. (new ed.), 194. Worth all the amusements which a *toy-maker could dream of.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., IX. iii. (1872), III. 87. *Toy-manufactures of those simple people.
1742. Forbes, Dominie Depos’d, II. i. The *toy-mutch maun then gae on, Nae mair bare-hair’d.
1693. Penn, 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.
1892. Baddeley, 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.
1889. Standard, 1 Feb., *‘Toy Services’ which are becoming very popular in some of our churches.
1895. Clive Holland, Jap. Wife (ed. 11), 27. *Toy-sized cups of tea.
1757. W. Thompson, R. N. Advoc., 41. Our Sons of War are to be served after our Sons of *Toy-Trade.
1893. A. N. Palmer, Hist. Wrexham, IV. 11. I find mentioned … one *toy-turner.
1827. Scott, 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. tói, 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. trych, tugh, ‘arms, implements, armaments, impedimenta, ornaments,’ = Ger. zeug ‘apparatus, tools, gear, furniture, stuff, trash, etc.,’ LG. tūg, tūūg, 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.]
