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Toy   Listen
verb
Toy  v. i.  (past & past part. toyed; pres. part. toying)  To dally amorously; to trifle; to play. "To toy, to wanton, dally, smile and jest."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Toy" Quotes from Famous Books



... be true," he said as he ended. "I remember seeing some time ago a description of the toy. I think I could lay my hand ...
— The Elect Lady • George MacDonald

... church-door, nor followed him to his lodging. He was not of those who compliment a man on his fine sermon. How grandly careless are some men of the risk of ruin their praises are to their friends! "Let God praise him!" said Polwarth; "I will only dare to love him." He would not toy with his ...
— Thomas Wingfold, Curate • George MacDonald

... the mention of some particularly pleasing toy Georgina would trot off happily to find it; but to-day she stood with her face drawn into a rebellious pucker and scowled at her mother savagely. Then throwing herself down on the rug she began kicking her blue shoes up and down on the hearth, roaring, "No! No!" at ...
— Georgina of the Rainbows • Annie Fellows Johnston

... some miles along the shore, a smooth, level road that winds about the bases of the hills that here slope down to toy and dally with the restless surf of the famous Inland Sea. Following the shore in a general sense, the road now and then leads inland for a mile or two, for the purpose of linking together the numerous towns and villages that dot the little alluvial valleys between the hills. Passing through one ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle Volume II. - From Teheran To Yokohama • Thomas Stevens

... of water increase that was carried daily out of the Tube and dumped from the two stations? If it did, the incident was ignored by the press. Instead, the fact that some "cranks" persisted in calling man's latest toy unsafe, only attracted more travel. The Undersea Tube functioned on regular schedule for three years, became the usual method ...
— The Undersea Tube • L. Taylor Hansen

... sort of office in the Guild or Society of Stationers, for from a curious letter written by Abbot Stevenage to Cromwell in 1539, about a certain book printed in St. Albans Abbey, he says he has sent the printer to London with Harry Pepwell, Toy, and 'Bonere' (Letters and Papers, H. 8, vol. xiv. p. 2, No. 315), so that it would look as if they were commissioned to hunt down popish heretical and seditious books. By the marriage of his daughter, Joan, to William Norton, the bookseller, who in turn named his son Bonham ...
— A Short History of English Printing, 1476-1898 • Henry R. Plomer

... abounded have long disappeared, and the sacred drama is told with almost as close an adherence to the facts recorded in the Gospels, as though the whole had been done by Protestant workmen. Where is the impress of Christ's footprint now? carted away or thrown into a lumber room as a child's toy that has been outgrown—so surely as has been often said do the famous words "E pur si muove" apply to the Church herself, as well as to that world whose movement she ...
— Ex Voto • Samuel Butler

... aside, Though the peasant girl is their master's bride, At her shyness, mingled with awkward pride,— 'Twere folly for trifles like these to fret; But the love of one that I cannot love, Will it last when the gloss of his toy is gone? Is there naught beyond, below, or above? ...
— Poems • Adam Lindsay Gordon

... those that would ruin their case And their necks for a toy, a thin wafer, and mass! For at Tyburn they never had needed to swing Had they been but true subjects to drink and their King: A friend and a bottle is all my design, - He's no room for treason that's ...
— Cavalier Songs and Ballads of England from 1642 to 1684 • Charles Mackay

... placing on the tea-table beside her her right hand glove and her card-case, a fragile toy in polished silver with a device and motto engraven on it. She then proceeded to remove her veil, raising her arms high to unfasten the knot, her graceful attitude throwing gleams of changeful light on the velvet ...
— The Child of Pleasure • Gabriele D'Annunzio

... finger snapped like a toy pistol. "No law-courts talk for me. You were so close together. He took the risk. By Indra, he won't take any more such risks if I get at him! You said we would not see him here. But no doubt he has been hanging round Amber, making what mischief he can. He must have heard your party ...
— Far to Seek - A Romance of England and India • Maud Diver

... favour she had done him. Then the young lady made him sit down by her, and began to caress him. She put her hand behind his head, and gave him some tips from time to time with her fingers: ravished with those favours, he thought himself the happiest man in the world, and had a great mind to toy also with the charming lady, but durst not take that liberty before so many slaves, who had their eyes upon him, and laughed at their lady's wanton tricks. The young lady continued to tip him with her fingers, but at last gave him such a sound box on the ear, ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous

... And when the door had closed, he began, incuriously: "Then you are not a murderess at least, Miss Allonby. At least—" He made a queer noise as he gazed, at the despatch-box in his hand. "The brown box!" It fell to the floor. Ormskirk drew near to her, staring, moving stiffly like a hinged toy, "I must have the truth," he said, without a trace of any human passion. This was the Ormskirk ...
— Gallantry - Dizain des Fetes Galantes • James Branch Cabell

... where women sat on their door-steps making the most beautiful lace in the world—odd nooks and corners and narrow ways where it was easy to lose one's self, small as the town really was; innumerable little toy bridges over toy canals one could have leaped at a bound, overlooked by quaint, irregular little dwellings, of colors that had once been as those of the rainbow, but which time had mellowed into divine harmonies, ...
— The Martian • George Du Maurier

... upon the heels of sunset, comes a grizzly, tall, and slouching man, in the cap and blouse of a Union soldier, bearing down with his left hand upon a cane, and dragging his left foot heavily behind him, while with his right hand he holds by a string a cluster of soaring toy balloons, and also drags, by its long wooden tongue, a rude child's cart, in ...
— In Madeira Place - 1887 • Heman White Chaplin

... her lips into an expression of supreme disgust, as she finished, and began to toy with the end of ...
— The Doctor's Daughter • "Vera"

... convinced Lee that he could toy with the Potomac army no longer, and this was more than ever impossible after Grant took command. Then Greek met Greek, and the death grapple began. At the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, and most mercilessly of all at Cold Harbor, ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XII • John Lord

... Slowly we advanced towards the Muir; very slowly, for these shining bergs carried death with them if they should graze hard against the steamer's side, and, cautiously, steered with infinite pains, the little boat crept on, zigzagging between them. A frail little toy of man, it seemed, to venture here alone; small, black, impertinent atom forcing its way so hardily into this magnificence of colour, this silent splendour, this radiant stillness of the North. Into this very fastness of the most gigantic forces of Nature it had penetrated, ...
— Five Nights • Victoria Cross

... the drawer. There were little coats, of many a form and pattern, piles of aprons, and rows of small stockings; and even a pair of little shoes, worn and rubbed at the toes, were peeping from the folds of a paper. There was a toy horse and wagon, a top, a ball,—memorials gathered with many a tear and many a heart-break! She sat down by the drawer, and leaning her head on her hands over it, wept till the tears fell through her fingers into the drawer; then, suddenly ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin

... false word and thought, Whose mortal craft and counsel caught And snared my faith who doubted nought, And made me put my shield away. Ah, might I live, I would destroy That castle for its customs: joy There makes of grief a deadly toy, And death ...
— The Tale of Balen • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... her till her great foresail was no larger than a toy ship's. Then I sat down and cried, and had no care that the negro slave ...
— Wide Courses • James Brendan Connolly

... is for any number of players, and is played with a wooden board which is divided into compartments or pools, and can be bought cheaply at any toy shop for a small sum. Failing a board, use a sheet of ...
— My Book of Indoor Games • Clarence Squareman

... Sefton had been lunching with a friend, and when she returned she brought Edna a present; it was a pin brooch set with brilliants, a most costly toy, and Edna had admired it in an idle moment; but as she opened the little case there was no ...
— Our Bessie • Rosa Nouchette Carey

... called Love. Lives are glorified or ruined by it, and no man or woman experiences it who is not more or less, in the process of experiencing, some sort of a fool. They play with happiness as though it were a toy, and learn too late they've thrown away the only thing worth having in life. By-the-way, speaking of happiness, has this Mr. ...
— Miss Gibbie Gault • Kate Langley Bosher

... been dropped an oasis of turf and of thickets of green willows. Through the centre of the verdure the Diamond Creek flowed dimpling over a pebbly bed, or shot in sparkles between barring bowlders, or plunged over shelves in toy cascades. The travellers had seen nothing so hospitable in nature since leaving the country ...
— Overland • John William De Forest

... a Jack-of-all-Trades.* Sometimes you would see him behind his counter selling broadcloth, sometimes measuring linen; next day he would be dealing in merceryware. High heads, ribbons, gloves, fans, and lace he understood to a nicety. Charles Mather could not bubble a young beau better with a toy; nay, he would descend even to the selling of tape, garters, and shoe-buckles. When shop was shut up he would go about the neighbourhood and earn half-a-crown by teaching the young men and maids to dance. By these methods he had acquired immense ...
— The History of John Bull • John Arbuthnot

... world mid double danger, groans, and tears; The toy, the sport, the waif and stray of passions, error, ...
— The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi • Richard F. Burton

... May of that year; while at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia the public first gained any familiarity with it. It was greeted at once with scientific acclaim and enthusiasm as a distinctly new and great invention, although at first it was regarded more as a scientific toy than as a ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

... discover in one of the cavities, among a great collection of costly bejewelled ornaments, such European articles as a pair of common scissors in a pasteboard case, several penknives of the commonest quality, an India-rubber squeaking doll, a child's toy train in tin, and a mechanical mouse. All were, no doubt, considered as treasures by the Arab potentate, yet I reflected that nearly every article in the whole of that miscellaneous collection had been acquired by the ...
— The Great White Queen - A Tale of Treasure and Treason • William Le Queux

... to be looked upon as something more than a mere toy. Its ingenuity and scientific accuracy give it an educational value which is not to be measured by the roughness of the ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various

... a' for the tirravee o' a lassie that canna' value a guid chance when it offers! I wonder what ails her, if it's no' that mon-sher's ta'en her fancy! Women are a' like weans; they never see the crack in an auld toy till some ane shows them a new ane. Weel! as sure as death I wash my haun's o' the hale affair. She's daft; clean daft, puir dear! If she kent whit I ken, she micht hae some excuse, but I took guid care o' that. I doot yon's the end o' a very promisin' ...
— Doom Castle • Neil Munro

... toy-dog is covered with dust, But sturdy and staunch he stands; And the little toy-soldier is red with rust, And his musket moulds in his hands. Time was when the little toy-dog was new, And the soldier was passing fair, And that was the time when our Little ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.

... traveller or other adventurer, some giant, dwarf, or fairy, some animal, wild or tame. He plays the part of one or other of these, and his playmates play other parts, and so a little drama is enacted. If he has no playmates, his dolls have to play their parts, or his toy animals have to be endowed with life, so that they may become fellow-actors with him on the stage that he has selected. No instinct is more inevitable, more sure to ...
— What Is and What Might Be - A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular • Edmond Holmes

... everything delightful to say. Like all women of forty, Isabelle liked the night, tempered lights and becoming settings, and the dignity of formal entertaining. Last but not least, she had a new toy to-night, a great black fan of uncurled wild ostrich plumes whose tumbled beauty she waved about her slowly as Harriet came in, watching the effect in the mirror ...
— Harriet and the Piper - (Norris Volume XI) • Kathleen Norris

... take you away from your mother. It was very stupid of me, but I thought this palace was so dull, and that I should be much happier if I just had a merry little girl to play in it, and I hoped you would take my crown for a toy and let me be your playmate. It was very ...
— Young Folks Treasury, Volume 2 (of 12) • Various

... Royal Society the famous paper detailing his recent experiments with the compound microscope. Aided by Tully, a celebrated optician, Lister succeeded in making of the microscope a practical scientific implement rather than a toy. With the help of his own instrument Lister was able to settle the long mooted question as to the true form of the red corpuscles ...
— A History of the Nineteenth Century, Year by Year - Volume Two (of Three) • Edwin Emerson

... to think that any woman will suit me? or what chance is there that any woman will make me happy? Is it not all leather and prunella? She is pretty and clever, soft and feminine. Where shall I find a nicer toy to play with? You forget, Arthur, that I have had my day-dreams, and been roused from them somewhat roughly. With you, the pleasure is still ...
— The Bertrams • Anthony Trollope

... that time, although we were still living in a cabin. The crops had been good, and we had been able to save a little. He poured out all the pennies and nickels in his bank,—ninety-three cents they came to,—and then he got his only store toy, a box of tin soldiers that had been sent to him Christmas, and put that on the table beside the money. We didn't appear to notice what he was doing. Presently he brought the mittens his grandmother up in Vermont had ...
— The Story of the Red Cross as told to The Little Colonel • Annie Fellows-Johnston

... formed the only covering to his head. His cheeks were painted with curious marks of jet black. But the most remarkable points about him were the huge pieces of wood which formed ornaments in his ears and under lip. They were round and flat like the wooden wheel of a toy-cart, about half an inch thick, and larger than an old-fashioned watch. These were fitted into enormous slits made in the ears and under lip, and the latter projected more than two inches from his mouth! Indeed, the cut that had been made to receive this ornament was so large ...
— Martin Rattler • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... flushed, and he repeated in a hollow tone, inexpressibly mournful: "Let the young man live, and the old name die with Guy Darrell. Ay, ay! see how the world sides with Youth! What matters all else so that Youth have its toy!" Again his eye hurried on impatiently till he came to the passage devoted to Lady Montfort; then George saw that the paper trembled violently in his hand and that his very lips grew white. "'Serious apprehensions,'" ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Beauty, since the Day I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn'd With all Perfections, so enflame my Sense With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now Than ever, Bounty of this virtuous Tree. So said he, and forbore not Glance or Toy Of amorous Intent, well understood Of Eve, whose Eye darted contagious Fire. Her hand he seiz'd, and to a shady Bank Thick over-head with verdant Roof embower'd, He led her nothing loth: Flowrs were the Couch, Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel, And Hyacinth, Earths ...
— The Spectator, Volume 2. • Addison and Steele

... the tortoise-shell kitten fore-mentioned, of a musical snuff-box, a toy model of a ship, a small Noah's ark, a half-consumed slice of bread and butter, an apple with a good-sized bite taken out of one side, a thick lump of toffee, and a darkish-brown substance like gingerbread, ...
— Teddy - The Story of a Little Pickle • J. C. Hutcheson

... of the next day was spent in H——, a snug town with a little park like a clean handkerchief, streets with coloured shops, neat and fresh-painted like toys from a toy-shop, little blue trains, statues of bewigged eighteenth-century kings and dukes, and a restaurant, painted Watteau-fashion with bright green groves, ladies in hoops and powder, and long-legged sheep. Here we wandered, five of us. Nikitin told us that he would meet us at the station ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole

... observer printing seems the simplest of arts or crafts. The small boy who has been taught to spell can readily arrange lettered blocks of wood in readable words, and that arrangement is rated by many as the great feature of printing. With his toy printing-press he can stamp paper upon inked type in so deft a manner that admiring friends may say the print is good enough for anybody. The elementary processes of printing are indeed so simple that they might have justified Dogberry in adding typography ...
— The Building of a Book • Various

... the dining room Henriette was struck by Edmond's delicate beauty, never having seen him before. She eyed him with the pleasure she would have felt in looking at a pretty toy. Could it be possible that that boy had served in the army? and how could they have been so cruel as to break his arm? The story of his gallantry in the field made him even more interesting still, and Delaherche, who had received Henriette with the cordiality ...
— The Downfall • Emile Zola

... FUNCHAL, JUNE 29. - Here we are off Madeira at seven o'clock in the morning. Thomson has been sounding with his special toy ever since half-past three (1087 fathoms of water). I have been watching the day break, and long jagged islands start into being out of the dull night. We are still some miles from land; but the sea is ...
— Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin • Robert Louis Stevenson

... had a bag with me," he thought, as he heard a peculiar squeaking arise from beneath his feet. "Never mind: I'll tie their legs together with my handkerchief, or thrust them into toy breast." ...
— The Black Tor - A Tale of the Reign of James the First • George Manville Fenn

... to," said the old man, dryly "I got no interest in it any more; 'twa'n't nothing but a metaphysical toy, anyway." He turned his head apathetically on the pillow, and no longer faced his visitor, who found it impossible in the conditions of tacit dismissal ...
— A Pair of Patient Lovers • William Dean Howells

... fell that two little children, Queen Signy's youngest-born, Were about the hall that even, and amid the glee of the horn They played with a golden toy, and trundled it here and there, And thus to that lurking-bower they drew exceeding near, When there fell a ring from their toy, and swiftly rolled away And into the place of the wine-tuns, and by Sigmund's feet made stay; Then the little ones followed after, and ...
— The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs • William Morris

... loveliness of her. There were no words to describe the last—only that it was Spirit made of all the dusks and all the white fires. There was something little about her that called an undreamed-of tenderness; and something superb and mysterious, so vast that he could be held in it like a toy ...
— Son of Power • Will Levington Comfort and Zamin Ki Dost

... by some equally mysterious agency divined what was afoot and set up a clamour for a valued set of doll's furniture, which immediately provoked a similar outcry from little Annette for her Teddy Bear. Followed woe and uproar. The invalids insisted upon having every single toy they possessed brought in and put upon their beds; Florence was first disingenuous and then surrendered her loot with passionate howlings. The Teddy Bear was rescued from Baby after a violent struggle in which one furry ...
— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... was to do, if I had been in a mind to do it. All the seats to sit in, all the statuary to inspect, all the flowers to smell. The southern terrace overlooking the Seine was closed, or I might have amused myself with the toy railway of the Prince Imperial that ran nearly the whole length of it, with its switches and turnouts and houses; or I might have passed delightful hours there watching the lights along the river and the blazing illumination on the amusement halls. But I ascended the ...
— Baddeck and That Sort of Thing • Charles Dudley Warner

... Mackenzie. Mit-sah and Kloo-kooch went with him. One sled he drove himself, drawn by dogs he had traded for or borrowed. A second and smaller sled was driven by Mit-sah, and to this was harnessed a team of puppies. It was more of a toy affair than anything else, yet it was the delight of Mit-sah, who felt that he was beginning to do a man's work in the world. Also, he was learning to drive dogs and to train dogs; while the puppies themselves were being broken in to the harness. Furthermore, ...
— White Fang • Jack London

... busy place. The regimental supply company which was preceding us over the road was engaged in forcibly persuading the last of its mules to enter the toy freight cars which bore on the side the printed legend, "Hommes 40, ...
— "And they thought we wouldn't fight" • Floyd Gibbons

... the nurse, who was assisting the old gentleman to the ground. Then the car swung on again. Jim turned up the collar of his coat about his ears and stamped his feet. There was the florist's shop where he had meant to buy the violets, and the toy-shop was just ...
— The Children's Book of Christmas Stories • Various

... the bookstalls and stopped short and stared with unseeing eyes at the display of popular literature. He was wondering now whether after all he ought to have let her go. He experienced something of the blank amazement of a child who has burst its toy balloon. His golden globe of satisfaction in an instant had gone. An irrational sense of loss was flooding every other feeling about V.V. If she had loved him truly and altogether could she have left him like this? Neither of them surely had intended so complete a separation. He ...
— The Secret Places of the Heart • H. G. Wells

... children, the extremely simple architecture of the dwelling-houses, the vegetation, the extraordinary salutations between the common people who met each other upon the streets, the trading booths or bazars, and the queer, toy-like articles which filled them, children flying kites in the shape of hideous yellow monsters, each subject became a fresh study. Men propelling vehicles like horses between the shafts, and trotting off at a six-mile pony gait while drawing after them one or two persons with ease, was at ...
— Due West - or Round the World in Ten Months • Maturin Murray Ballou

... on end. "They have got dogs," he whispered, "a toy bull, a Mexican, a Chow, two Pomms—and, by Jupiter! they've got a marmoset! Look at 'em! Hark! You can hear those unnatural girls laughing! Me for a ...
— The Gay Rebellion • Robert W. Chambers

... communication between the great lakes, their posts were on the banks of the Niagara, while our adventurers had reached a point many leagues westward of that celebrated strait. The cutter rode at single anchor, without the breakers, resembling some well-imagined and accurately-executed toy, intended rather for a glass case than for struggles with the elements which she had so lately gone through, while the canoe lay on the narrow beach, just out of reach of the waves that came booming upon the land, a speck upon ...
— The Pathfinder - The Inland Sea • James Fenimore Cooper

... little, as we look up toward the Salute, we see all Venice, on the July afternoon, so serried as to move slowly, pour across the temporary footway. It is a flock of very good children, and the bridged Canal is their toy. All Venice on such occasions is gentle and friendly; not even all Venice pushes anyone ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James

... for a while in our supreme renunciation as children delight in a new toy. And even now I can look back upon that time and wish that there could have been a little more substance to the shadow. It was a time of wonderful and sweet intimacy. We were to tell each other everything. There was delight in that. There was the delight of looking ahead and planning the ...
— We Three • Gouverneur Morris

... is not his life; and if he take that for his life, he is cheated: when a merchant has given all for what seemed a goodly pearl, he has not another fortune in reserve wherewith to begin anew, if that for which he paid all his possessions turns out to be a worthless toy of glass. Our time, our life—this is our fortune, on which we trade for the better world: if these be spent,—be thrown away for what is not life, ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... literary artist, who was able to express himself with rare facility in pictures in place of words, so that his comments upon a simple text reveal endless subtleties of thought.... You have but to turn to any of his toy-books to see that at times each word, almost each syllable, inspired its own picture.... He studied his subject as no one else ever studied it.... Then he portrayed it simply and with inimitable vigor, with a fine economy of line and colour; when colour is added, ...
— A Mother's List of Books for Children • Gertrude Weld Arnold

... yachting men used to put upon their jackets. I began to speculate, as listless men will, upon this trifle, as it seemed. From what centre did that faint but deep red light come, and from what—glass beads, buttons, toy decorations—was it reflected? We were lumbering along gently, having nearly a mile still to go. I had not solved the puzzle, and it became in another minute more odd, for these two luminous points, with a sudden jerk, descended ...
— Green Tea; Mr. Justice Harbottle • Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

... glittering shops, its tiny palaces, its baths, its forum, its theatre, its circus—in the energy yet corruption, in the refinement yet the vice, of its people, you beheld a model of the whole Roman Empire. It was a toy, a plaything, a show-box, in which the gods seemed pleased to keep the representation of the great monarchy of earth, and which they afterwards hid from time, to give to the wonder of posterity—the moral of the maxim, that under the sun ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various

... which clinked and rattled like the toy of a devil, I snatched the medicine stick from her hand and motioned her to the door. Thither she retreated, muttering words of an unknown tongue, and when it closed upon her I flung the stick angrily on the floor. ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 10 • Various

... The orange hues of heaven sunk silently. We hardly spoke, and soon the gondola Conveyed me to my lodging by the way. 140 The following morn was rainy, cold, and dim: Ere Maddalo arose, I called on him, And whilst I waited with his child I played; A lovelier toy sweet Nature never made; A serious, subtle, wild, yet gentle being, 145 Graceful without design and unforeseeing, With eyes—Oh speak not of her eyes!—which seem Twin mirrors of Italian Heaven, yet gleam With such deep meaning, as we never see But in the human countenance: ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley

... recollections of him," writes Jeffery Parker, "is in connection with a letter he wrote to my father, on the occasion of the death, in infancy, of one of my brothers. 'Why,' he wrote, 'did you not tell us before that the child was named after me, that we might have made his short life happier by a toy or two.' I never saw a man more crushed than he was during the dangerous illness of one of his daughters, and he told me that, having then to make an after-dinner speech, he broke down for the first time in his life, and for one painful moment forgot where he was and ...
— The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley Volume 3 • Leonard Huxley

... find my Hollis," said she turning another corner, and running the wrong way with all her might. Past candy-stalls, past toy-shops, past orange-wagons. Hark, music again! Not the soft strains of a harp, but the stirring notes of bugle, fife, and drum. Fly ...
— Little Folks Astray • Sophia May (Rebecca Sophia Clarke)

... suggested that the best way to please the father was to give something to the son. "Something for Jedidiah!" exclaimed Mr. Jones. "The next time I go to New York, I'll go to a toy-shop; I'll buy ...
— The Last of the Peterkins - With Others of Their Kin • Lucretia P. Hale

... INVENT.—Cheap, useful articles that will sell at sight. Something that everyone needs, and the poorest can afford. Invent simple things for the benefit of the masses, and your fortune is made. Some years back a one-armed soldier amassed a fortune from a single toy—a wooden ball attached to a rubber string. They cost scarcely anything, yet millions were sold at a good price. A German became enormously rich by patenting a simple wooden plug for beer barrels. "What man ...
— One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed • C. A. Bogardus

... consensus of newspaper opinion that the old hell with its lake of fire and brimstone was an antiquated institution; in fact a dead letter." And again, "I was coming down Broadway last night, and I stopped to look at one of the street-venders selling those little toy fighting roosters. It was a bleak, desolate evening; nobody was buying anything, and as he pulled the string and kept those little roosters dancing and fighting his remarks grew more and more cheerless ...
— Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete - The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Albert Bigelow Paine

... a small pressure tank of hydrogen inside—one of the little ones that are sometimes used to fill toy balloons. There was a small batch of electronic circuitry that looked as though it might be the insides of an ...
— With No Strings Attached • Gordon Randall Garrett (AKA David Gordon)

... both scooper and pick—the latter an old fork with but one tine left. Bep promptly threw herself on top of her twin, while Peter, a laconic lad, calmly set himself to rehabilitating the hind wheel of a battered tin toy express which ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson

... o'clock when Bart got through with his supper, did his house chores, mended a broken toy pistol for one junior brother, made up a list of purchases of torpedoes, baby-crackers and punk for the other, and helped his ...
— Bart Stirling's Road to Success - Or; The Young Express Agent • Allen Chapman

... prettiest little toy in gold and enamel, with elaborate monogram and coat of arms—a watch that looked like a woman's gift. They had been nearly ...
— The Lovels of Arden • M. E. Braddon

... manse a lively lilt of music drifted up to meet him. It was only the product of a mouth-organ, manipulated by a little black-eyed, French-Canadian hired boy, sitting on the fence by the brook; but there was music in the ragged urchin and it came out through his simple toy. It tingled over Felix from head to foot; and, when Leon held out the mouth-organ with a fraternal grin of invitation, he snatched at it as a famished creature might ...
— Chronicles of Avonlea • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... fire engine here I could put out the fire," said Bunny. But his fire engine was only a toy, and though it did squirt water when he turned the handle, it only sprayed out a little—about a tin cup full. So I guess it could not have put ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on Grandpa's Farm • Laura Lee Hope

... me the countless riches you have to offer at the Museum, puts me in the frame of mind of the child who was offered his choice in a toy-shop. "I choose everything," he said. I could reply in the same way. I choose all you offer me. Still, one must be reasonable, and I will therefore name, as the thing I chiefly desire, the remarkable fauna dredged from the Gulf ...
— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... from side to side, supported by the prongs of the back legs, and another across, supported by the prongs of the front legs (Fig. 8). The clothespin used for the front of the shelf will probably have to be a trifle longer than that for the back, as the box is wider in front than at the back. Set some toy dishes on the top, the shelf, and the inside bottom of the china ...
— Little Folks' Handy Book • Lina Beard

... point of variance is physical. Some have a small body and a powerful mind, like a Corliss engine in a tiny boat, whose frail structure will soon be racked to pieces. Others are born with large bodies and very little mind, as if a toy engine were set to run a mudscow. This means that the poor engineer must pole up stream all his life. Others, by ignorance of parent, or accident through nurse, or through their own blunder or sin, destroy their bodily capital. Soon they are like boats cast high and dry upon ...
— A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character • Newell Dwight Hillis

... outstretched claws, as a hawk on his prey, and seizing the glittering thing returned it to his lips with a look of evident relief. It was habit, of course, for we were not exactly the men to plunder him of his toy, but there was a fierceness about the whole action that spoke of the real miser. Then there was silence for a moment. The old man was evidently greatly impressed by the perils ...
— Mr. Isaacs • F. Marion Crawford

... Crecy, 1346, (and later of Poitiers,) covered the warlike king and his son, Edward the "Black Prince," with imperishable renown. Small cannon were first used at that battle. The knights and the archers laughed at the little toy, but found it useful ...
— The Evolution of an Empire • Mary Parmele

... to entertain her," "Buffalo" Westabrook went on. "I've bought her every gimcrack that's made for children—her nursery looks like a toy factory. I've bought her prize ponies, prize dogs and prize cats—rabbits, guinea-pigs, dancing mice, talking parrots, marmosets—there's a young menagerie at the place in the Adirondacks. I've had a doll-house and a little theater built for her at Pride's. ...
— Maida's Little Shop • Inez Haynes Irwin

... right to be otherwise than suspicious and ever on his guard; if he relaxes in his vigilance he has only himself to blame when his honor is flung like a ball from hand to hand, as one plays with a child's toy. I repeat to you, Nina, you are mine, and I swear you shall never ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli

... vessel load. Their stores complete, and ready now to weigh, A spy was sent their summons to convey: An artist to my father's palace came, With gold and amber chains, elaborate frame: Each female eye the glittering links employ; They turn, review, and cheapen every toy. He took the occasion, as they stood intent, Gave her the sign, and to his vessel went. She straight pursued, and seized my willing arm; I follow'd, smiling, innocent of harm. Three golden goblets in the porch she found (The guests not enter'd, but the table ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope

... send it up to the police-station and say that some gentleman or other left it here by accident. And if that Steel comes back we can say that there is no cigar-case here. And if Steel does not see the police advertisement he will lose his pretty toy, and serve him right. Yes, that is the way to serve ...
— The Crimson Blind • Fred M. White

... Maud! She slid a few yards with rigid limbs, squealing in terror, and then crashed to the ground like an overturned toy horse. ...
— Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures • Edgar Franklin

... was because the man was so much greater than the ends for which he strove, that there is a sort of grandeur in the tragic fate which denied them to him, and yet exhibited to all the world the infinite superiority of the striver himself to the toy he was thus ...
— Sir Walter Scott - (English Men of Letters Series) • Richard H. Hutton

... dey wasn't real but painted on somep'n. Dere was a million miles from me to her—twenty-five knots a hour. She was like some dead ting de cat brung in. Sure, dat's what. She didn't belong. She belonged in de window of a toy store, or on de top of a garbage can, see! Sure! [He breaks out angrily.] But would yuh believe it, she had de noive to do me doit. She lamped me like she was seein' somep'n broke loose from de menagerie. Christ, yuh'd oughter seen her eyes! ...
— The Hairy Ape • Eugene O'Neill

... my constant companion. It was my carpenter, my ship-builder, and my toy-manufacturer. It was out upon all occasions, never amiss, and always "handy;" and, as I valued it, I never let it part from me. I own my selfishness; I would divide my apples among my playmates, my whole store of marbles was at their service,—they ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders

... cared for by the servants, and appeared the next day without any shame, bringing "a toy for missy." All my lecture was quite thrown away—she "had only taken a glass of grog in the bazaar, and they had put bang into it, so of course it made her insensible; but it was no fault of hers." This curious old woman was a Mahometan, therefore her tipsiness was inexcusable. She practised ...
— Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak • Harriette McDougall

... of them in the garden. What a dreadful battle! And how strange that only you and I should know anything about it! But the Japanese won! This morning I found this soldier on the ground, but he is quite a toy again, and has not a single wound. ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various

... me. Taine gone, and Renan, and Symonds, and Tennyson, and Browning; the suns go swiftly out, and I see no suns to follow, nothing but a universal twilight of the demi-divinities, with parties like you and me and Lang beating on toy drums and playing on penny whistles about glow-worms. But Zola is big anyway; he has plenty in his belly; too much, that is all; he wrote the DEBACLE and he wrote LA BETE HUMAINE, perhaps the most excruciatingly silly book that I ever read to an end. And why did ...
— Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 2 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... I noted were a metal fish-market, engineer art which contrasts marvellously with the Ionic pilasters and the solid ashlar of the 'dicky;' and, at the root of the sickle, a new custom-house of six detached boxes, reddest-roofed and whitest-walled, built to copy children's toy cottages. Croatian Fiume would blush to own them. Of the general impurity of the town and of the bouquet de Messine ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... the Dead Man. "Is Happiness so common that we can toy with it? Is life's greatest joy so cheap that we can thrust it aside when by a miracle it is laid at our feet? Can we afford to risk everything by putting off love when it is ...
— The Return of Peter Grimm - Novelised From the Play • David Belasco

... volunteer answers and comment from the class increase the vividness of the impressions. A mechanical adaptation of the "monkey on the string" problem, using little electric hoists or clockworks, introduces interesting discussion of the third law in conjunction with the second. A toy cannon and target mounted on easily rolling carriages bring in the similar ideas where impulses rather than forces alone ...
— College Teaching - Studies in Methods of Teaching in the College • Paul Klapper

... me some more about Atlantis.' Or, 'Mother, tell me some more about ancient Egypt and the little toy-boats they made for their little boys.' Or, 'Mother, tell me about the people who think Lord ...
— The Magic World • Edith Nesbit

... like what is naughty: and I think it would be much better if you were in bed too. Come, give me that ugly toy; there is Monsieur quite shocked to see you playing ...
— My Little Lady • Eleanor Frances Poynter

... the oval, and then, for good measure, in the middle, hoping in one of those three general blasts to contact the thing's central nervous system. He was not to know which of those shots did the trick, but the frantic wiggling of the legs slowed and finally ended, as a clockwork toy might run down for want of winding—and at last projected, at crooked angles, completely still. The shell creature might not be dead, but ...
— Storm Over Warlock • Andre Norton

... Christmas trees, hung with toys and not yet lighted, and presently in a wink were again at Santa Claus's home, in a great hall. All along the sides were cases filled with all sorts of toys, guns, uniforms, sleds, skates, snow-shoes, fur gloves, fur coats, books, toy-dogs, ...
— Tommy Trots Visit to Santa Claus • Thomas Nelson Page

... remote corner of his mind, as tiny as the smallest toy he had ever seen in his childhood, he was still aware of the room and the ship, and of Father Moontree picking up a telephone and speaking to a Scanner captain ...
— The Game of Rat and Dragon • Cordwainer Smith

... at a side table. The Denton lay there, looking like a toy beside a standard slender-barrelled sporting pistol. "Bet your life, Comteen!" she said. "I've always been too stingy to try out a first-class preserve on my own money. And this one is first class." She paused. "Comteen and Drura Lod really ...
— Legacy • James H Schmitz

... morning Urquhart made an explicit return to Martley, arriving at the hour of eleven in his motor of battleship grey colour and formidable fore-extension. Behind it looked rather like a toy. Lucy had gone to church alone, for James never went, and Vera Nugent simply looked appealing and then laughed when she was invited. That was her way of announcing her religion, and a pleasant one. Lord ...
— Love and Lucy • Maurice Henry Hewlett

... came now a shout from Billy, and a crashing blow that almost severed Black Dick's arm at the shoulder: and at the same instant I was on Master Toy's collar, and had him down in the dust. Kneeling on his chest, with my sword point at his throat, I had leisure to glance at Billy, who in the dark, seem'd to be sitting on the head of his disabled victim. And then I felt a ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch

... forbear, the Infidels will laugh, To know a silken toy has broke our league, And sav'd the Sepulchre—It must not be, My friends, that private discord shall cut short The work we have begun—Bohemond, no— Restore the treasure to its rightful Lord, And my pavilion shall replace ...
— The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland • Various

... intention of giving him fair play by coming within his reach, he suddenly uncoiled and glid across a log, thinking to make good his retreat; but being determined on having—not his scalp, for the head of a rattle-snake is rather a dangerous toy—but his rattle, I pursued him across the log. He now coiled again, and rattled most furiously, thus indicating his extreme wrath at being attacked: the bite of this reptile is most venomous when he is most enraged. I took up a flat stone, ...
— A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America • S. A. Ferrall

... cause for gratulation or relief, that in this problem, whose vast issues, vista receding behind vista, men so wide apart as Napoleon I. and Victor Hugo pondered spell-bound; that in this arena where conflicts await us beside which, in renunciation, triumph, or despair, this of to-day seems but a toy; that in this crisis, a crisis in which the whole earth is concerned, the Empire has intervened, definitely and for all time, which more than any other known to history represents humanity, and in its dealings ...
— The Origins and Destiny of Imperial Britain - Nineteenth Century Europe • J. A. Cramb

... season Mr. H.... rarely or never visited me in) I was in my closet, where my toilet stood, in nothing but my shift, a bed gown and under petticoat. Will was with me, and both ever too well disposed to baulk an opportunity. For my part, a whim, a wanton toy had just taken me, and I had challenged my man to execute it on the spot, who hesitated not to comply with my humour: I was set in the arm chair, my shift and petticoat up, my thighs wide spread and mounted over the arms of the chair, presenting the fairest mark to ...
— Memoirs Of Fanny Hill - A New and Genuine Edition from the Original Text (London, 1749) • John Cleland

... answer it yet. I said I'd lay everything on the line, so here it is. Saying she's a tremendous lot of woman is like calling the Perseus a nice little baby's-bathtub toy boat. I'd go to hell for her any time, cheerfully, standing straight up, wading into brimstone and lava up to the eyeballs. If anything ever hurts her it'll be because I'm not man enough to block it. And just the minute this damned job is over, ...
— Masters of Space • Edward Elmer Smith

... pair of them, to prevent them from escaping when travelling through The Desert." A painful shuddering came over me to see a man playing with these dreadful instruments of the slavery and torture of his fellow men. Yet he played with them as his rosary of beads, or some simple toy! . . . . . Another merchant came up to him, and observed, "The irons for the neck are better, as these may break." After a pause, I asked my acquaintance where these irons for the legs were made? He replied, "In Soudan; the people there have iron ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... perfect liking. Nor did the satyr-writing poet lie in proof hereof, when he affirmed that a woman, burning with extreme affection, takes sometimes pleasure to steal from her sweetheart. And what, I pray you? A glove, a point, or some such trifling toy of no importance, to make him keep a gentle kind of stirring in the research and quest thereof. In like manner, these small scolding debates and petty brabbling contentions, which frequently we see spring up and for a certain space boil very hot betwixt a couple of high-spirited lovers, are nothing ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... Wheeler there, to play his usual part at such times, and went upstairs. He filled the stockings bravely, an orange in each toe, a box of candy, a toy for old time's sake, and then the little knickknacks he had been gathering for days and hiding in his desk. After all, there were no fewer stockings this year than last. Instead of Jim's there was the tiny one for Nina's baby. That ...
— The Breaking Point • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... drew a weapon from his pocket, but, with a snarling laugh, the big fellow reached out his great hand and the shining toy went whirling through the air. "Go home," said the giant. "Damn you, go home! Don't you hear? For God's sake get out o' my sight ...
— The Shepherd of the Hills • Harold Bell Wright

... were you, I should get them each a shilling toy, and then one wouldn't be better than another," said Muriel carelessly, rising and putting an end to a conversation of which she was growing tired. "I'm thankful to say my presents are ...
— The Nicest Girl in the School - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil

... on men's backs, bicycles and handcarts laden with kitchen utensils, all mingled with the human stream. Here were to be seen sewing machines, beds, bedding, food, and there a little girl or boy with some toy clasped uncomprehendingly in a dirty hand; they also knew that danger threatened and that they must save what they held most dear. And even among these unhappy people there were some more unfortunate than the others—men and women who had no ...
— America's War for Humanity • Thomas Herbert Russell

... to Naftel's toy-store I drag him. A birthday present for a dollar his mother wants he should have, all right, a birthday present! I give you my word till I'm ashamed for Naftel, every toy in his shelves is pulled down. Such a ...
— Humoresque - A Laugh On Life With A Tear Behind It • Fannie Hurst

... startled by his manner, and began to be sorry that she had every listened to the ogre. But she did not like to draw back, and pretended to be immensely delighted at her new toy, and kissed and ...
— The Orange Fairy Book • Andrew Lang

... to me," said the girl. "Mr. Meadows was immensely clever, and Sir Henry was like a man with a new toy. The Home Secretary had just put him in as Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department. He was full of a lot of new ideas—dactyloscopic bureaus, photographie mitrique, and scientific methods of crime detection. He talked about it all the time. I didn't ...
— The Sleuth of St. James's Square • Melville Davisson Post

... of a group; four healthy and handsome children crowded around him, watching, with all the intense hope and anxiety of that happy age, the progress of his work. He was occupied, as grandfathers often are, in constructing a toy for his grandchildren. The prettiest of the party was a dark-eyed rosy girl of about four, perhaps five—for her countenance had more intelligence than generally belongs to either age, while her figure was slight and small, small enough for a child not numbering more than three years: she, too, ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... get a toy to-morrow, for Eliza, and send the device for the seals of myself and * * * * * Mem. too, to call on the Stael and Lady Holland to-morrow, and on * *, who has advised me (without seeing it, by the by) not to publish ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. II - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... his thumbnail, a tarnished little trinket, no longer new, which tinkled merrily under his astonished gaze. He examined the thing more carefully, his bewilderment increasing, noting the curious construction, which was unlike that of the toy bells which had adorned the necks of the wooly beasts abroad at Christmas-time. It was heavy for its size, and when he moved it had a decisive and very mellow note. Who would send him a thing like this and why? There must have been a mistake. He took up the paper wrapper from the waste basket ...
— Madcap • George Gibbs

... got there, my boys?' he asked. They showed him their treasures, which proved to be bunches of small desk and cabinet keys, that had been picked up from the wrecks—a melancholy kind of toy, he could not help thinking. By-and-bye the good wife spread the hospitable board, at which he was invited to take his seat. He looked with surprise at the plates which she placed upon the deal table. ...
— Georgie's Present • Miss Brightwell

... It was a brand-new toy bestowed by millionaire Chauncey Randolph on his one fair daughter. Jack and Molly Winston had been married in New York in June (when I would have been best man had it not been for Helen), had spent their honeymoon ...
— The Princess Passes • Alice Muriel Williamson and Charles Norris Williamson

... remember it," I exclaimed, pressing passionately the delicate hand which offered the glasses for my inspection. They formed a complex and magnificent toy, richly chased and filigreed, and gleaming with jewels, which, even in the deficient light, I could not help ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 3 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... also, to women no less than to men. During the previous period woman, in fashionable circles, had been treated as an elegant toy, of whom nothing was expected but to be frivolously attractive. Addison and Steele held up to her the ideal of self-respecting intellectual development and of reasonable preparation for her own ...
— A History of English Literature • Robert Huntington Fletcher

... by all these attitudes and exertions,—an end of the first importance, which could not be trusted to any care less perfect than her own. This glitter, this opaline lustre plays round the top of every toy to his eye to insure his fidelity, and he is deceived to his good. We are made alive and kept alive by the same arts. Let the stoics say what they please, we do not eat for the good of living, but because the meat is savory and the appetite is keen. The vegetable life ...
— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... were insignifacant, as usual. It is not considered good taste to have elaberate things for the school crowd. But when I think of the silver things Sis always brought home, and remember that I took away about six Christmas Stockings, a toy Baloon, four Whistles, a wooden Canary in a cage and a box of Talcum Powder, I feel that things are ...
— Bab: A Sub-Deb • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... suppose that the consumer, for the things which he himself makes and sells, or for the work which he performs, receives more? What then? The whole thing begins to have a jigsaw look, like a child's toy rack with wooden soldiers on it, expanding and contracting. One searches in vain for the basis on which the relationship rests. And at the end of the analysis one finds nothing but a mere anarchical play of forces, nothing but a give-and-take ...
— The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice • Stephen Leacock

... the street, the tears were tracing their way over his round, plump cheek, but soon a smile played around his mouth. Mrs. B—— took him into a toy-shop, and purchased for him a tin horse suspended in a wheel, which he could roll about the room. He selected this himself, and it was delightful to see with how much pleasure he looked at it, as he carried ...
— The Nest in the Honeysuckles, and other Stories • Various

... anything about it he probably gets along all right. Now, let's have a look at your foot. Take off your shoe; and put the kettle on the fire, so that we can get some warm water. The first thing always is to keep a cut clean; and I have read, too, that where there is any rusty nail or toy pistol around the best thing is to keep ...
— The Young Alaskans • Emerson Hough

... sometimes when the doorbell rings, The girl knocks at the door. "An' is the doctor in?" she sings, A dozen times or more. "Good-by, old man!" he says. "That bell Means business. Here's your toy!" And off he goes. I'll never tell He's nothing but ...
— A Jolly Jingle-Book • Various

... sonnet-sequences, sins against the law of lyric sincerity. In no lyric form does mechanism so easily obtrude itself. A sonnet is either, like Marlowe's raptures, "all air and fire," or else it is a wooden toy. ...
— A Study of Poetry • Bliss Perry



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