PLAYTHING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does plaything mean? 

• PLAYTHING (noun)
  The noun PLAYTHING has 1 sense:

1. an artifact designed to be played with

  Familiarity information: PLAYTHING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLAYTHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An artifact designed to be played with

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

plaything; toy

Hypernyms ("plaything" is a kind of...):

artefact; artifact (a man-made object taken as a whole)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "plaything"):

catapult; sling; slingshot (a plaything consisting of a Y-shaped stick with elastic between the arms; used to propel small stones)

pinwheel; pinwheel wind collector (a toy consisting of vanes of colored paper or plastic that is pinned to a stick and spins when it is pointed into the wind)

playhouse; wendy house (plaything consisting of a small model of a house that children can play inside of)

pogo stick (plaything consisting of a pole with foot rests and a strong spring; propelled by jumping)

popgun (plaything consisting of a toy gun that makes a popping sound)

rattle (a baby's toy that makes percussive noises when shaken)

sandbox; sandpile; sandpit (a plaything consisting of a pile of sand or a box filled with sand for children to play in)

dandle board; seesaw; teeter; teeter-totter; teeterboard; teetertotter; tilting board (a plaything consisting of a board balanced on a fulcrum; the board is ridden up and down by children at either end)

playground slide; slide; sliding board (plaything consisting of a sloping chute down which children can slide)

pinata (plaything consisting of a container filled with toys and candy; suspended from a height for blindfolded children to break with sticks)

stick horse (a child's plaything consisting on an imitation horse's head on one end of a stick)

swing (mechanical device used as a plaything to support someone swinging back and forth)

teddy; teddy bear (plaything consisting of a child's toy bear (usually plush and stuffed with soft materials))

spinning top; teetotum; top; whirligig (a conical child's plaything tapering to a steel point on which it can be made to spin)

train set (a toy consisting of small models of railroad trains and the track for them to run on)

squirt gun; squirter; water gun; water pistol (plaything consisting of a toy pistol that squirts water)

yo-yo (a toy consisting of a spool that is reeled up and down on a string by motions of the hand)

ball (a spherical object used as a plaything)

pea shooter (a straight narrow tube through which pellets (as dried peas) can be blown at a target)

Meccano; Meccano set (a child's construction set for making mechanical models)

Lego; Lego set ((trademark) a child's plastic construction set for making mechanical models)

kite (plaything consisting of a light frame covered with tissue paper; flown in wind at end of a string)

kaleidoscope (an optical toy in a tube; it produces symmetrical patterns as bits of colored glass are reflected by mirrors)

jumping jack (plaything consisting of a toy figure with movable joints that can be made to dance by pulling strings)

jungle gym (a structure of vertical and horizontal rods where children can climb and play)

jack-in-the-box (plaything consisting of a toy clown that jumps out of a box when the lid is opened)

hula-hoop (plaything consisting of a tubular plastic hoop for swinging around the hips)

hobby; hobbyhorse; rocking horse (a child's plaything consisting of an imitation horse mounted on rockers; the child straddles it and pretends to ride)

Frisbee (a light, plastic disk about 10 inches in diameter; propelled with a flip of the wrist for recreation or competition)

doll's house; dollhouse (a small model of a house used as a toy by children)

doll; dolly (a small replica of a person; used as a toy)

cockhorse (anything used as a toy horse (such as a rocking horse or one knee of an adult))

balloon (small thin inflatable rubber bag with narrow neck)

 Context examples 

'It is no good. It is too small. It is for a child, a little plaything.'

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

They make a plaything of me, use me for their amusement, throw me away when they are tired, and wonder that I feel more than a toy horse or a wooden soldier!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They have brought the whole coach full of playthings for the children.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It must have been this, I suppose, that stirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with which I listened to the civilities of my unhappy victim; I declare, at least, before God, no man morally sane could have been guilty of that crime upon so pitiful a provocation; and that I struck in no more reasonable spirit than that in which a sick child may break a plaything.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Because I have less confidence in my deserts than Adele has: she can prefer the claim of old acquaintance, and the right too of custom; for she says you have always been in the habit of giving her playthings; but if I had to make out a case I should be puzzled, since I am a stranger, and have done nothing to entitle me to an acknowledgment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was their plaything and their idol, and something better—their child, the innocent and helpless creature bestowed on them by Heaven, whom to bring up to good, and whose future lot it was in their hands to direct to happiness or misery, according as they fulfilled their duties towards me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

When dinner was almost done, the nurse came in with a child of a year old in her arms, who immediately spied me, and began a squall that you might have heard from London-Bridge to Chelsea, after the usual oratory of infants, to get me for a plaything.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Sometimes, too, when he frightens me, it seems that he is a bulldog I have taken for a plaything, like some of the 'frat' girls, and he is tugging hard, and showing his teeth, and threatening to break loose.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was, that Dora seemed by one consent to be regarded like a pretty toy or plaything.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)