cloyed; cloying; cloys

transitive verb

: to supply with an unwanted or distasteful excess usually of something originally pleasing
… Cordelia has been cloyed by her sisters' excessive protestations of affection …Rebecca West

intransitive verb

: to be or become insipid or distasteful usually through an excess of an originally pleasurable quality (such as sweetness)
… curious how the lemon keeps its bite when the sweet flavours have begun to cloy, and the crispness has departed.Eric Korn
Choose the Right Synonym for cloy

satiate, sate, surfeit, cloy, pall, glut, gorge mean to fill to repletion.

satiate and sate may sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire.

years of globe-trotting had satiated their interest in travel
readers were sated with sensationalistic stories

surfeit implies a nauseating repletion.

surfeited themselves with junk food

cloy stresses the disgust or boredom resulting from such surfeiting.

sentimental pictures that cloy after a while

pall emphasizes the loss of ability to stimulate interest or appetite.

a life of leisure eventually begins to pall

glut implies excess in feeding or supplying.

a market glutted with diet books

gorge suggests glutting to the point of bursting or choking.

gorged themselves with chocolate

Examples of cloy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The shoes are charming but not cloying, nostalgic without trying to be. Air Mail, 11 Oct. 2025 The thin glaze on top adds a bit of sweetness without being cloying. Ann Taylor Pittman, Southern Living, 11 Oct. 2025 Cooper’s grasp of the material is unerring, imbuing it with a sweetness that’s never cloying, a generosity of spirit that’s never unearned. David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2025 Sweet but not cloying, figs can go from breakfast to dinner to dessert without so much as a costume change. Emily Saladino, Bon Appetit Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for cloy

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, to hinder, lame, alteration of acloyen to harm, maim, modification of Anglo-French encloer to nail, prick a horse with a nail in shoeing, from Medieval Latin inclavare, from Latin in + clavus nail

First Known Use

1528, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Time Traveler
The first known use of cloy was in 1528

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Cite this Entry

“Cloy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloy. Accessed 21 Oct. 2025.

Kids Definition

cloy

verb
: to supply with too much of something that was originally pleasing
cloyingly
-iŋ-lē
adverb

More from Merriam-Webster on cloy

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