cloying

adjective

cloy·ing ˈklȯi-iŋ

ˈklȯiŋ

Synonyms of cloying next

: disgusting or distasteful by reason of excess

cloying sweetness

also : excessively sweet or sentimental

a cloying romantic comedy

Her coyness grows cloying after a while … —

Elysa Gardner

cloyingly adverb

Did you know?

We won’t bore you with the sappy tale behind the word cloying, because happily, there isn’t one. That’s because its history isn’t sweet, but rather tough as nails. Cloying comes from the verb cloy, which had among its earliest uses the meaning (to quote the Oxford English Dictionary) “to render [a gun] useless by driving a spike or plug into the touch-hole.” This ultra-specific sense of clogging and stuffing arose alongside both broader and figurative ones, including “to fill or choke up,” and cloy has since come to mean “to supply or indulge to excess.” Accordingly, cloying implies a nauseating amount of something that might be pleasing in smaller doses, especially both literal and metaphorical sweetness.

Examples of cloying in a Sentence

After a while, the softness of his voice becomes cloying. the cloying sentiments of so many Mother's Day cards

Recent Examples on the Web With its myriad references to warbling princesses, cloying theme park animatronics, and lovable talking animals, Shrek was viewed by critics as a giant green middle finger to Katzenberg’s former employer. —

Ej Dickson, Rolling Stone, 10 Apr. 2024 Editor Tip: Unlike other balms containing shea butter — a scent many including Mackenzie find slightly cloying — Motherlove’s silky balm has a subtle herbal scent that’s vaguely spa-like. —

Macaela MacKenzie, Allure, 5 Apr. 2024 Warren comes off as shrill and cloying when compared with Julie Andrews' perfect voice and unaffected sweetness, and the high-school-grade set design and categorically ugly costumes are that much more dismal when compared to the vivid production of the 1997 fairy tale. —

EW.com, 4 Mar. 2024 Instead, this film has the garish lighting, cloying score, and nonsensical plot of a soap opera, without any of the suspense. —

Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 26 Mar. 2024 What if there was a sports movie for everyone who hates the usual cloying, sweet stories? —

Chris Snellgrove, EW.com, 5 Oct. 2023 Although Sweeney is more persuasive in the latter half of the film, when the trauma of pregnancy turns Cecilia into an avenging nun, the early sweetness and naïveté of her character is too cloying to track with her sudden personality shift. —

Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Mar. 2024 Its notes of pink grapefruit, peach nectar, and jasmine create a fresh, citrusy-meets-floral scent that’s light and airy without feeling cloying or overpowering. —

Jamie Allison Sanders, Peoplemag, 28 Feb. 2024 The charmed tale of the very polite bear is as comforting as a marmalade sandwich without ever feeling cloying, and our critic favorably compared it to a Wes Anderson or Muppets movie. —

Debby Wolfinsohn, EW.com, 26 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cloying.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.