toy with
phrasal verb
toyed with; toying with; toys with
1
: to think about (something) briefly and not very seriously
I toyed with the idea of moving to France but ended up staying here.
2
: to move or touch (something) with one's fingers often without thinking
She toyed with her hair while she talked on the phone.
3
: to deal with or control (someone or something) in a clever and usually unfair or selfish way
Do you really love me, or are you just toying with me?
Don't toy with my emotions.
Examples of toy with in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The apocryphal tales, however, toy with the idea of the God-man revealing his power early on.
—
Mary Dzon, The Conversation, 12 Dec. 2025
Colleges have toyed with inviting in private equity money for several years but had thus far balked.
—Alex Sherman,contessa Brewer, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2025
In Lily King’s Heart the Lover, Jordan (a nickname, after The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker) is an undergraduate toying with early ambitions to become a novelist when she’s pulled into the social world of the two star students in her 17th-century literature class.
—Lucy Feldman, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
For a while, Madison Thompson, 30, toyed with the idea of getting a new couch but didn’t want to spend an extortionate amount.
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for toy with
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Mary Dzon, The Conversation, 12 Dec. 2025
Colleges have toyed with inviting in private equity money for several years but had thus far balked.
—Alex Sherman,contessa Brewer, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2025
In Lily King’s Heart the Lover, Jordan (a nickname, after The Great Gatsby’s Jordan Baker) is an undergraduate toying with early ambitions to become a novelist when she’s pulled into the social world of the two star students in her 17th-century literature class.
—Lucy Feldman, Time, 9 Dec. 2025
For a while, Madison Thompson, 30, toyed with the idea of getting a new couch but didn’t want to spend an extortionate amount.
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for toy with
Cite this Entry
“Toy with.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toy%20with. Accessed 21 Dec. 2025.
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