中国网站品牌栏目（频道）
Sam is toying with the idea of quitting his job.
My comments:
A toy is a plaything, something for babies, boys and girls and, yes, some adults who have yet to outgrow these things to play with. Toy as a verb suggests you are playing and have fun.
And playing is usually considered leisurely. In other words, not serious.
For Sam to be toying with the idea of quitting his job, hence, is for him to think briefly about quitting the job. He’s not serious. For the time being, he’s on the job and he may still be on the job next week, month, or year.
He’s just given quitting his job some thoughts, briefly talked about it with friends perhaps, but he is not very serious about it.
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本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。
About the author:
Zhang Xin（张欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.
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