different between dwarfish vs toy

English

Etymology

dwarf +? -ish

Adjective

dwarfish (comparative more dwarfish, superlative most dwarfish)

1. Like a dwarf; being especially small or stunted.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 2, [1]

     […] now does he feel his title / Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe / Upon a dwarfish thief.

   • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Section XXIV, in The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, London: John C. Nimmo, 1887, Volume I, p. 242, [2]

     Besides the extraordinary great in every species, the opposite to this, the dwarfish and diminutive, ought to be considered. Littleness, merely as such, has nothing contrary to the idea of beauty.

   • 1843, Edgar Allan Poe, "The Gold-Bug" [3]

     The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish.
2. Of, pertaining to, or made by or for dwarves.

   Dwarfish axes are some of the finest weapons available.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English toye (“amorous play, piece of fun or entertainment”), probably from Middle Dutch toy, tuyg (“tools, apparatus, utensil, ornament”) as in Dutch speel-tuig (“play-thing, toy”), from Old Dutch *tiug, from Proto-Germanic *teug? (“stuff, matter, device, gear, lever”, literally “that which is drawn or pulled”), from Proto-Germanic *teuhan? (“to lead, bring, pull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”). Cognate with German Spielzeug (“toy”), Danish legetøj (“play-thing, toy”). Related to tug, tow.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

toy (plural toys)

1. Something to play with, especially as intended for use by a child. [from 16th c.]

2. A thing of little importance or value; a trifle. [from 16th c.]

   • he had deflowered the abbess, and as many besides of the nuns as he could, and leaves him withal rings, jewels, girdles, and such toys to give them still, when they came to visit him.

3. A simple, light piece of music, written especially for the virginal. [16th-17th c.]
4. (obsolete) Love play, amorous dalliance; fondling. [16th-18th c.]
   • 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.

5. (obsolete) A vague fancy, a ridiculous idea or notion; a whim. [16th-17th c.]
   • , 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 […].

   • What if a toy take 'em i'th' heels now, and they all run away.

   • Nor light and idle toys my lines may vainly swell.

6. (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.

7. (obsolete) An old story; a silly tale.
8. (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.
9. A sex toy (object or device to give sexual pleasure).

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:toy

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

toy (third-person singular simple present toys, present participle toying, simple past and past participle toyed)

1. (intransitive) To play (with) in an idle or desultory way.
2. (intransitive) To ponder or consider.

3. (slang, transitive) To stimulate with a sex toy.
   • 2013, Jonathan Everest, Lady Loverly's Chattel

     He could see her hand go to her slit, and soon she was toying herself along, breathing heavily.

Translations

See also

• game

Anagrams

• Tyo, yot

Azerbaijani

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *toy (“feast”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /toj/

Noun

toy (definite accusative toyu, plural toylar)

1. wedding

Declension

Crimean Tatar

Noun

toy

1. wedding feast
2. banquet

Faroese

Etymology

From Danish tøj, from Middle Low German tüg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??i?/, /t?œi?/

Noun

toy n (genitive singular toys, uncountable)

1. fabric

Declension

Middle French

Alternative forms

• toi

Pronoun

toy

1. (in the singular, less formal) you

Synonyms

• (plural or polite singular): vous

Related terms

• te
• tu

Turkish

Etymology 1

From Ottoman Turkish ????, attested in Turkic from the 11th century.

Adjective

toy

1. immature, naive

Etymology 2

Noun

toy (definite accusative toyu, plural toylar)

1. great bustard; Otis tarda

See also

• tay

References

• Ni?anyan, Sevan (2002–) , “toy1”, in Ni?anyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) , “???”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 1264

Uzbek

Noun

toy (plural toylar)

1. foal