cloy

American  

[kloi] / klɔɪ /

verb (used with object)

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

   Synonyms:

   bore, sate, glut

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verb (used without object)

1. to become uninteresting or distasteful through overabundance.

   A diet of cake and candy soon cloys.

cloy British  

/ klɔɪ /

verb

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

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Other Word Forms

• overcloy verb (used with object)
• uncloyed adjective

Etymology

Origin of cloy

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

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.

From The Wall Street Journal

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.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From The Wall Street Journal

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.

From Salon

Related Words

• nauseate