Two flavors: (1) playful 'frolic' - kids playing, used neutrally; (2) malicious 'toy with / make a fool of' - when someone is the deliberate target. Sense (2) is the more common one in modern Chinese, often paired with
拿 (
你别拿我戏耍 'don't make me your plaything'). Stronger than
开玩笑 ('joke around').
