toy with
Idioms-
Amuse oneself idly with, trifle, as in He teased her, toying with her as a cat toys with a mouse . [Early 1500s]
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Treat casually or without seriousness, as in I'm toying with the idea of writing a novel . [Early 1800s]
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.
For almost as long, she’s also made experimental folk and electronic records that toy with avant-garde noise and quietly poignant songwriting.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
"We like to toy with it. We like to take the irony on."
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025
At her age, I was learning how to count coins and save for a toy with literal dollar bills.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2025
Think of the toddler's classic hammer-and-bench toy, with square, circular, triangular and star-shaped wooden pegs that can each only fit in the correspondingly shaped hole in the bench.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
“Let’s not toy with this poor boy more than you already have. We don’t want anything to happen to him.”
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
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.
