cloy

verb

ˈklȯi 

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

Like the Massé, the painting is colorful without being cloying, minimalist but not boring, and shows the particular hand of its maker. —Zoe Dubno, Vogue, 30 Dec. 2025

Patchett’s novels are sentimental but never cloying. —Emma Alpern, Vulture, 30 Dec. 2025

Anything that was grating, cloying, or that took any amount of patience to appreciate was not for me (this year, at least). —Rolling Stone, 29 Dec. 2025

The film is relentlessly upbeat and optimistic, sometimes veering into cloying territory. —Chris Snellgrove, Entertainment Weekly, 26 Dec. 2025

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

Rhymes for cloy

• boy
• choy
• coy
• croy
• foy
• hoi
• hoy
• joy
• loy
• oy
• ploy
• soy

Kids Definition

cloy

verb

ˈklȯi 

: to supply with too much of something that was originally pleasing

cloyingly

-iŋ-lē

adverb