Definition of "plaything"

[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.

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

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.

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

O Lord of seven skies, whose plaything is the thunder, thou art amongst the gods, what need hast thou for words from any man?

1905, [Edward Plunkett,] Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegāna‎, London: Elkin Mathews, […], page 74

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

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXVIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 297

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

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], page 17