cloying
Americanadjective
-
causing or tending to cause disgust or aversion through excess.
a perfume of cloying sweetness.
-
overly ingratiating or sentimental.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cloying
Explanation
If you’re a cynic who favors dark, edgy humor and thrillers, you probably find romantic comedies with their hearts, flowers, and sappy happy endings cloying — so sweet and sentimental that they make you want to retch. Whether you’re talking about dessert wine or love notes, cloying means sickeningly sweet. It’s how folks who love espresso feel about Frappuccino. Cloying comes in handy to describe things that are too sweet both literally. "Don’t worry about him trying to kiss you; your cloying perfume is sure to keep him at arm’s length." Or figuratively. "Your incessant flattery and cloying way of hanging on my every word was charming at first, but now I wish you’d go away."
Vocabulary lists containing cloying
Sickly Sweet Treats: Sappy and Insincere Valentine Words
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100 Words to Make You Sound Smart
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Pie Chart: Dessert Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Cloying Hallmark Christmas movies set in European cities may be all the rage this year, but in Italy, they do not come anywhere close to the cultural juggernaut that once was cinema panettone.
From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2023
Cloying pop culture references and of-the-moment punch lines abound, including jokes about Etsy and gaslighting.
From New York Times • Jan. 26, 2023
Cloying and sappy as Barney's manner seems to adults, it, like the rest of the amateurish production, is carefully calculated to keep a two-year-old transfixed.
From Time Magazine Archive
But why doe I digresse the path I tread, Cloying your eares with that your eyes doe read?
From Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) by Miller, Paul William
Cloying all his will with her sugared caprices, she makes him scenes and so keeps him in subjection.
From The Price of Things by Glyn, Elinor
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
