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.

Noun

(en-noun)

The use of rituals or actions, especially based on supernatural or occult knowledge, to manipulate or obtain information about the natural world, especially when seen as falling outside the realm of religion; also the forces allegedly drawn on for such practices.

*c. 1489 , (William Caxton), Foure Sonnes of Aymon :

*:And whan he shall be arrayed as I telle you / lete hym thenne doo his incantacyons & his magyke as he wyll […].

*1781 , (Edward Gibbon), Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , II.23:

*:The arts of magic and divination were strictly prohibited.

*1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, p. 23:

*:Conversions to the new religion […] have frequently been assisted by the view of converts that they are acquiring not just a means of otherworldly salvation, but a new and more powerful magic .

A specific ritual or procedure associated with supernatural magic or with mysticism; a spell.

Something producing remarkable results, especially when not fully understood; an enchanting quality; exceptional skill.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}

A conjuring trick or illusion performed to give the appearance of supernatural phenomena or powers.