cloy

[kloi]

verb (used with object)

1. to weary by an excess of food, sweetness, pleasure, etc.; surfeit; satiate.

   Synonyms: bore, sate, glut

verb (used without object)

1. to become uninteresting or distasteful through overabundance.

   A diet of cake and candy soon cloys.

cloy

/ klɔɪ /

verb

1. to make weary or cause weariness through an excess of something initially pleasurable or sweet

Other Word Forms

• overcloy verb (used with object)
• uncloyed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cloy¹

1350–1400; aphetic variant of Middle English acloyen < Middle French enclo ( y ) er < Late Latin inclāvāre to nail in, equivalent to in- in- ² + -clāvāre, verbal derivative of clāvus nail

Word History and Origins

Origin of cloy¹

C14 (originally: to nail, hence, to obstruct): from earlier acloyen, from Old French encloer , from Medieval Latin inclavāre, from Latin clāvāre to nail, from clāvus a nail

Example Sentences

Called Agnes here, as she was in her father’s will, she is played by Jessie Buckley in a performance that tips over the edge from heartfelt into cloying, as does the film.

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The claim is sometime made that funerals are about the living, but that reduces the event to a group therapy session, overlaid with the cloying odor of lilies and gladioli.

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The script leans so heavily into cloying emotionality that, in its climax, everyone dissolves into tears.

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But she is bewildered by the sensory clashes and put off by the cloying sweetness.

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The results were rarely inedible, but often disconcerting: over-salted, over-spiced, somehow both cloying and sharp, like they couldn’t decide what they wanted to be.

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Related Words

• nauseate