noun
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a toy
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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.
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
"Wombats are not a photo prop or plaything," said Suzanne Milthorpe, Head of Campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, in a statement online.
From BBC • Mar. 13, 2025
Red Lobster became a plaything for financial engineers, a condition that almost never — if ever — leads to an improved consumer experience and greater profits in the long term.
From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2024
Here at the Walker Art Center, a weighty and ambitious exhibition reorients American audiences toward a generation of artists, writers and musicians for whom free expression was no plaything and no luxury.
From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2024
It had never occurred to him until then to think that literature was the best plaything that had ever been invented to make fun of people, as Alvaro demonstrated during one night of revels.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
