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View synonyms for cloying

cloying

[ kloi-ing ]

adjective

  1. causing or tending to cause disgust or aversion through excess:

    a perfume of cloying sweetness.

  2. overly ingratiating or sentimental.


cloying

/ ˈklɔɪɪŋ /

adjective

  1. initially pleasurable or sweet but wearying in excess
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • ˈcloyingly, adverb
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Other Words From

  • cloying·ly adverb
  • un·cloying adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of cloying1

First recorded in 1540–50; cloy + -ing 2
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Example Sentences

Cut into squares, it’s hard to stop eating — it’s sweet and hearty but not cloying or heavy, and has a soft but structured texture.

From Eater

It also adds emotional stakes to the comfortable domesticity of her world, which prevents it from getting cloying.

From Vox

Pays d'Oc, France, $19The semi-sweet designation gave me pause, but this wine is well-made in the style and not at all as cloying as some sweet reds that are not as transparent in their labeling.

The story they embody is a cloying, haphazard, and exposition-heavy mess.

From Time

I find fruity, rather than sweet, is a more reliable guide — after all, ripe fruit tastes sweet, and wines can taste ripe without being cloying.

And sure, this product—made from French vodka—is cloying in its sweetness.

After all, The Selfish Giant is one of the most cloying works in literature.

Cranberry sauce should be sweet but not cloying, and tart without causing pucker and anguish.

This is not to suggest Ann is cloying or offputtingly perfect.

He has also drawn remarkable performances from the child actors, who always seem expressive and believable, never cloying.

The Adagio is very fine in its way, but such is its cloying sweetness that one longs for something bracing and active.

They were so spicy, so woodsy, so redolent of a fine sweetness that had no cloying element in it.

The fawning of Society begins to pall after a week's experience of its cloying sweetness.

He swerved around cloying drifts of snow, he avoided holding ruts, he picked the icy sweeps of the road.

Following these lines, in his early piece, came others disfigured by cloying touches of the kind too common in his love-scenes.

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