cloy

American  

[kloi] / klɔɪ /

verb (used with object)

1. to weary by an excess of food, sweetness, pleasure, etc.; surfeit; satiate.

   Synonyms:

   bore, sate, glut

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verb (used without object)

1. to become uninteresting or distasteful through overabundance.

   A diet of cake and candy soon cloys.

cloy British  

/ klɔɪ /

verb

1. to make weary or cause weariness through an excess of something initially pleasurable or sweet

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Other Word Forms

• overcloy verb (used with object)
• uncloyed adjective

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

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

But before such moments can cloy, Arbery usefully complicates his case.

From New York Times • Jun. 22, 2022

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

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

Related Words

• nauseate