playmaten.

?1560 E. Gosynhyll Prayse of all Women l. 301 And nowe more valued than man myne Lyke so dyd god the femynyne Plaimate of the masculyne.

1591 R. Johnson Musarum Plangores sig. B4 My sorrowing playmates shrink, and kepe a loofe, As if a darth did couer all the land.

1642 H. More Ψυχωδια Platonica sig. L5 The lovely play-mates of pure veritie.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. iv. iii. 14 The young People of both Families had been acquainted from their Infancy; and as they were all near of the same Age, had been frequent Play-mates together. View more context for this quotation

1782 J. H. St. J. de Crèvecoeur Lett. from Amer. Farmer xii. 278 Shall I arm myself against that country where I first drew breath, against the play-mates of my youth, my bosom friends, my acquaintance?

1798 S. T. Coleridge Frost at Midnight in Fears in Solitude 21 My play-mate when we both were cloth'd alike!

1828 T. Carlyle Burns in Edinb. Rev. Dec. 284 Brother and playmate to all Nature.

1859 A. Helps Friends in Council New Ser. II. i. 14 Hunger and dirt for his playmates.

1879 G. Meredith Egoist vi She had been taken by playmate boys in her infancy to peep into hedge-leaves.

1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 107 Some years back there was much correspondence in the Saturday Westminster about youthful memories of an invisible playmate.

1948 Sunday Pictorial 18 July 7/1 The ‘style and dignity’ of Prince and Princess cut no ice with their nurses, teachers, playmates—or themselves.

1993 Financial Rev. (Sydney) 13 Aug. (Suppl.) 1/1 But Murdoch's new corporate playmate is a man so wealthy from an empire so widespread he makes Kerry Packer look like a pauper, Murdoch a struggling small businessman.

1928 Publishers' Weekly 9 June 2393 Gerry Harris was ‘a good time girl’, who sought men only as playmates.

1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §443/1 Lovers,..playmates.

1954 Playboy Jan. 26 (caption) Here's Playboy's playmate for the month of January. A very lovely unpinned pin-up to help you welcome in the New Year.

1977 B. Bainbridge Injury Time (1978) xvii. 137 To hell with Marcia, with her flat-mates, her play-mates, her unknown men answering the telephone.

1983 W. Goldman Adventures in Screen Trade 204 The Stepford wives are gorgeous... These girls are Playmates come to life.

1993 Wired Sept.–Oct. 48/3 The mummy is in a playmate pose completely wrapped in bandages.

2001 Cosmopolitan Dec. 58/2 A third playmate of either sex can be destructive to the very fabric of a couple's trust and intimacy.

1888 G. W. Cable in Library Mag. (N.Y.) May 21 Nor [is there] a tenth as much..playmating of white and colored children as there was in the days of slavery.

1983 Washington Post 2 Aug. b1 The playmating game. Two area college students and their revealing exposures.