noun
-
a toy
-
a person regarded or treated as a toy
he thinks she is just his plaything
Etymology
Origin of plaything
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Autos were no longer a “devilish plaything of the gilded class,” Mr. Moskowitz tells us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
"Both the Royal Family and the governments of England and Wales have other things to think about, which are rather more pressing and important than a child's plaything," said Dr Jones.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
Famously, he set a Barbie doll on fire to protest Greta Gerwig’s movie portraying the doll as a woman with agency, rather than a passive plaything.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2025
But where “M3GAN” felt alive to the culty potential of a malevolent plaything, “Imaginary” skips the directive to entertain, coming off as stiff, pedestrian and dreary as a March space-filler can get.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
And Eril-Fane, savior of Weep, three years’ plaything of the goddess of despair?
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
