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

A feeling of extreme happiness or cheerfulness, especially related to the acquisition or expectation of something good.

a child's joy on Christmas morning

* , chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}

Anything that causes such a feeling.

* Bible, 1 Thess. ii. 20

Ye are our glory and joy .

* Keats

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

(obsolete) The sign or exhibition of joy; gaiety; merriment; festivity.

* Spenser

Such joy made Una, when her knight she found.

* Dryden

The roofs with joy resound.