toy with

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 弄 has 7 strokes, the on-reading ろう, and the kun-reading もてあそぶ. 弄ぶ (もてあそぶ) can mean to fiddle with an object or toy with someone's feelings.
• Basic usage: 弄ぶ describes the action of handling or toying with something; passive forms of 翻弄 (ほんろう) describe being tossed about or swayed by waves or another person's words.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Fiddling and being swayed
  • 鍵を指先で弄んでいた means that someone was fiddling with a key between their fingertips. 人の感情を弄ぶ refers to toying with people's feelings.
  • 波に翻弄された means was tossed about by waves. 曖昧な言葉に翻弄され describes being swayed by vague words in an example about difficulty making a judgment.