plaything

play +‎ thing

plaything (plural playthings)

1. A thing or person intended for playing with.

   Synonym: toy

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292:

     [S]he hastily retired, taking with her her little girl, whose eyes were all over blubbered at the melancholy news she heard of Jones, who used to call her his little wife, and not only gave her many playthings, but spent whole hours in playing with her himself.

   • 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     The next day Charles had the child brought back. She asked for her mamma. They told her she was away; that she would bring her back some playthings.

2. A person at the mercy of fate.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 297:

     We talk of our energies and of our will—we are the mere playthings of subtle and malignant chances.

plaything (not comparable)

1. Used for the purpose of play or amusement
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 17:

     Like the cards which form a child's plaything palace, our pleasures are nicely balanced one upon the other.