cloy
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cloysimple
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cloyssimple
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have cloyedperfect
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has cloyedperfect
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am cloyingprogressive
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are cloyingprogressive
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is cloyingprogressive
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have been cloyingperfect progressive
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has been cloyingperfect progressive
Past
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cloyedsimple
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had cloyedperfect
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was cloyingprogressive
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were cloyingprogressive
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had been cloyingperfect progressive
Future
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
Explanation
To cloy is to overwhelm someone with an excess of something that initially seemed sweet or pleasant. One piece of your favorite candy is pleasant, but the taste starts to cloy if you have too many more pieces. When someone constantly showers you with compliments, it can start to cloy, making the attention feel insincere and overbearing. The verb cloy applies to anything that becomes a bit too much to be enjoyable, from sweet treats to overpowering perfumes to too much affection. Understanding how things can cloy helps you recognize that even the nicest things can lose their charm when overdone.
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.
See Examples For:
I added horseradish and hot sauce for a kick, and just enough ketchup to tint the sauce pale pink without letting it cloy.
From Seattle Times ● May 29, 2023
And whenever the cutesiness threatens to cloy, the script throws in a palate-cleansing taste of tart or bitter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 11, 2014
What happened then, and I may have been two days in or three or five, I couldn’t really say, was that things began to cloy.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 10, 2014
Mr. Wilson’s greatest strength wasn’t his lyrical way with words, which could occasionally cloy, but his infectious, sincere appreciation for the unexpected heat within lost and wayward lives.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2011
And I remember the smells of the hills, wild azalea and a very distant skunk and the sweet cloy of lupin and horse sweat on harness.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
The screen virtually overflows with computer-generated wizardry and cutesy flora and fauna, to a degree that cloys.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2019
Without stripping gears, she makes fast switches from explosive comedy to a sober emotionalism that never cloys.
From New York Times ● Apr. 20, 2017
In fact, if anything in “Olive and the Bitter Herbs” actually cloys, it is Olive’s own peevishness, strangely enough.
From New York Times ● Aug. 17, 2011
Kotch is "family" entertainment, but in its anxiety to please, it eventually cloys.
From Time Magazine Archive
What is love? 't is nature's treasure, 'T is the storehouse of her joys; 'T is the highest heaven of pleasure, 'T is a bliss which never cloys.
From Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations by Various
He envies the young for being young and for possessing the integrity that has eroded in him, the appetite for life that has cloyed on his palate, and the courage that has been drowned.
From Time Magazine Archive
Her formula, a combination of hard masculine realism with feminine deftness and sympathy, pleased many a post-War reader cloyed with hard-boiled sentimentality.
From Time Magazine Archive
If this cloyed on Holmes, he never gave a sign; he was obviously having too much fun watching Laski's continuous intellectual floor show.
From Time Magazine Archive
Appetites already cloyed by the night’s heat were further diminished.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
The famous mango cloyed us with its sweetness.
From From Egypt to Japan by Field, Henry M. (Henry Martyn)
At last year’s shindig, my friend Chet created a refreshing spritz without any of the cloying sweetness of Aperol.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
“Very fresh and sweet, but not in a cloying way. I could smell it all day.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
The salt sharpens the citrus and makes the sweetness feel brighter rather than cloying.
From Salon ● May 28, 2026
Such a cloying tone from the queen of bitterness!
From Slate ● May 6, 2026
The cloying smell of rancid fat from the butcher shop below made me thankful for the cool autumn breeze.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
