Noun

A playful or competitive activity.

#A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.

#:

#(label) An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.

#:

#*1983 , Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, and Walon Green, (WarGames) , MGM/UA Entertainment Co.:

#*:Joshua: Shall we play a game ?

#(label) A particular instance of playing a game; match .

#:

#:

#*

#*:“I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

#That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.

#The number of points necessary to win a game.

#:

#(label) In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.

#(label) The equipment that enables such activity, particularly as packaged under a title.

#:

#One's manner, style, or performance in playing a game.

#:

#:

A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.

:

:

Something that resembles a game with rules, despite not being designed.

:

*

*:I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game ’s afoot!

*

*:“I'm through with all pawn-games ,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Timothy Garton Ash)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli , passage=Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too.}}

An exercise simulating warfare, whether computerized or involving human participants.

(label) Wild animals hunted for food.

:

The ability to seduce someone, usually by strategy.

:

(label) A questionable or unethical practice in pursuit of a goal; a scheme.

:

*(Blackwood Magazine)

*:Your murderous game is nearly up.

*(George Saintsbury) (1845-1933)

*:It was obviously Lord Macaulay's game to blacken the greatest literary champion of the cause he had set himself to attack.

Noun

(en noun)

Something to play with, especially as intended for use by a child.

A thing of little importance or value; a trifle.

* Abr. Abbot

They exchange for knives, glasses, and such toys , great abundance of gold and pearl.

A simple, light piece of music, written especially for the virginal.

(obsolete) Love play, amorous dalliance; fondling.

* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.i:

Then seemed him his Lady by him lay, / And to him playnd, how that false winged boy, / Her chast hart had subdewd, to learne Dame pleasures toy .

(obsolete) A vague fancy, a ridiculous idea or notion; a whim.

*, vol.1, III.i.2:

Though they do talk with you, and seem to be otherwise employed, and to your thinking very intent and busy, still that toy runs in their mind, that fear, that suspicion, that abuse, that jealousy […].

* Spenser

To fly about playing their wanton toys .

* Beaumont and Fletcher

What if a toy take 'em in the heels now, and they all run away.

* Drayton

Nor light and idle toys my lines may vainly swell.

(slang, derogatory) An inferior graffiti artist.

* 2009 , Gregory J. Snyder, Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York's Urban Underground (page 40)

It is incorrect to say that toys tag and masters piece; toys just do bad tags, bad throw-ups, and bad pieces.

* 2011 , Adam Melnyk, Visual Orgasm: The Early Years of Canadian Graffiti (page 45)

I was a toy until I met Sear, who moved here from Toronto and showed me the book Subway Art.

(obsolete) An old story; a silly tale.

(Shakespeare)

(Scotland, archaic) A headdress of linen or wool that hangs down over the shoulders, worn by old women of the lower classes; called also toy mutch.

* Sir Walter Scott

Having, moreover, put on her clean toy , rokelay, and scarlet plaid.