toyman
(ˈtɔɪmən)
[f. toy n. + man n.1]
A man who sells toys, or who keeps a toy-shop: formerly, one who sold requisites for sports, trinkets, and fancy goods; latterly, one who makes or sells playthings for children (cf. toy-shop 1, 2).
| 1707 Lond. Gaz. No. 4328/8 Ralph Ayscough, of St. James's Westminster, Toyman. 1710–11 Swift Jrnl. 7 Jan., I will go to the toyman's here just in Pall Mall, and he sells great hugeous batoons. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xii. iv, The pocket-book..had cost five and twenty shillings, having been bought of a celebrated toyman. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 6 ¶5 The toyman will not give his jewels. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab Notes, Poet. Wks. (1891) 41/1 The jeweller, the toyman, the actor gains fame and wealth by the exercise of his useless and ridiculous art. 1886 C. E. Pascoe Lond. of To-day xl. (ed. 3) 347 Those admirable examples of the toyman's craft—whole garrisons of miniature soldiers, artillery, cavalry, and infantry. |