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
By this point, Matthiessen was already toying with the idea of becoming a writer.
—
Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
There’s a high-wire tension to Linda’s toying with disaster, a way in which the film feels like the Uncut Gems of motherhood (Josh Safdie is actually a producer).
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2025
The royal memorably wore a Catherine Walker suit with a Hackett waistcoat at an event in April 1988 and went on to toy with fashion conventions as a modern royal.
—Julia Teti, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2025
While Black Ops 6 toyed with a more grounded, back-to-the-basics approach of UAVs, airstrikes, and attack choppers as scorestreak rewards for tallying enough points or kills, the speculative fiction framework of BLOPS 7 means everything requires a heightened tone.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 7 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for toy with
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Maggie Doherty, New Yorker, 13 Oct. 2025
There’s a high-wire tension to Linda’s toying with disaster, a way in which the film feels like the Uncut Gems of motherhood (Josh Safdie is actually a producer).
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 10 Oct. 2025
The royal memorably wore a Catherine Walker suit with a Hackett waistcoat at an event in April 1988 and went on to toy with fashion conventions as a modern royal.
—Julia Teti, Footwear News, 9 Oct. 2025
While Black Ops 6 toyed with a more grounded, back-to-the-basics approach of UAVs, airstrikes, and attack choppers as scorestreak rewards for tallying enough points or kills, the speculative fiction framework of BLOPS 7 means everything requires a heightened tone.
—Christopher Cruz, Rolling Stone, 7 Oct. 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 20 Oct. 2025.
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