toy with

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

North Crowley just toyed with the running game with 20 rushes for 114 yards, but the Panthers were dominant through the air. — Charles Baggarly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 30 Oct. 2026

Levy became involved with the Furby when his friend, Dave Hampton, who invented the toy with co-creator Caleb Chung, called Levy who had a talent for making pitches and had the connection. — Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant, 29 Oct. 2026

Around the same time, my parents toyed with the idea of moving up to Guilford, a picturesque town on the Long Island Sound that was even whiter than Greenwich. — Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026

Architects have long toyed with shipping containers as objects of exploration, deploying these off-the-shelf metal structures for a wide variety of uses. — Edward Keegan, Chicago Tribune, 18 Oct. 2026