toy soldier
5
1.8
- noun
- /tɔɪ ˈsoʊldʒər/
:
soldado de juguete
- As a child, I spent hours setting up my collection of toy soldiers for battles.
- plastic toy soldiers
- tiny toy soldiers
- play toy soldiers
Examples
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When he was little, Larry used to like to play with toy soldiers.
-
Hillary Westall, chief auctioneer, bright and stiff as a toy soldier himself, stepped to the podium.
Fiction book (1997) -
I told her about my mother and the toy soldiers.
Fiction book (1994) -
I thought you looked just like a little toy soldier.
-
The old doc has toy soldiers on his shelves and desk.
Fiction book (1995) -
Games Workshop produces some of the best toy soldiers in the world and is pricing them accordingly.
Blog text (1) -
The Dolbier collection, a million dollars' worth of antique toy soldiers, was going to auction the next day.
Fiction book (1997) -
We were talking about toy soldiers, 54 millimeters tall, hollow cast, old.
Fiction book (1997) -
The toy soldier on the floor here ought, I think, to belong to a small boy of 5.
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Inexpensive replicas of coins and paper money, old flags, maps, musket balls, toy soldiers, and paper dolls in authentic period clothing from museum gift shops provide students with useful artifacts for their collection.
Academic text (1992)
Synonyms
2
3.4
A small metal toy shaped like a soldier that children play with
A small toy man made of thin metal, often a soldier
How Realistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun-noun compound is compositionally transparent: 'toy' specifies a play object and 'soldier' specifies the figure represented, so the meaning (a small figurine of a soldier for play) is directly derivable from the parts. This straightforward modifier-head pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
Toy soldier comes from small figures children play with that are made to look like real soldiers and used as toys. Kids line them up and pretend battles, so the name now simply means 'a small soldier-shaped toy'.