cloy
verb
transitive verb
Rebecca Westintransitive verb
Eric Korn
Example Sentences
Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2022 But before such moments can cloy, Arbery usefully complicates his case. New York Times, 22 June 2022 That sweetness can cloy if it’s not suitably chilled and diluted, which is why almost everyone chooses to make it on the rocks. Jason O'bryan, Robb Report, 16 Dec. 2021 The museum’s sacredness to many, including me, can cloy a little. Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 8 Feb. 2021 This is not entirely a bad thing, and the movie, which begins streaming Friday on Disney+, emerges a generally charming, sometimes cloying exercise in wildlife anthropomorphism. Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2020 Her 2014 autobiography, A Fighting Chance, and recent stump speeches are festooned in pep club spirit and folksy blandishments, cloying bits of business that have attached themselves to her life story. Caroline Fraser, The New York Review of Books, 13 Feb. 2020 Well that’s because when the cookies are good, there’s little else that’s so perfectly fudgy but not dense, sweet but not cloying, satisfying, without putting you over the edge. Alex Pastron, Bon Appétit, 4 Feb. 2020 The whole thing manages to be sweet, and funny, and not cloying in the way of so much kid-centric programming. Sophie Kemp, Vogue, 24 Dec. 2019 See More Word History
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
1528, in the meaning defined at transitive sense
cloy
verb
Synonyms & Similar Words
- saturate
- surfeit
- gratify
- alleviate
- lighten
- humor
- relieve
- slake
- satiate
- indulge
- sate
- quench
- satisfy
- assuage
- cater (to)
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- excite
- stimulate
- arouse
- pique
- tantalize
- tease
Synonym Chooser
Some common synonyms of cloy are glut, gorge, pall, sate, satiate, and surfeit. While all these words mean "to fill to repletion," cloy stresses the disgust or boredom resulting from such surfeiting.
The synonyms glut and cloy are sometimes interchangeable, but glut implies excess in feeding or supplying.
In some situations, the words gorge and cloy are roughly equivalent. However, gorge suggests glutting to the point of bursting or choking.
While the synonyms pall and cloy are close in meaning, pall emphasizes the loss of ability to stimulate interest or appetite.
Both satiate and sate may sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire.
The meanings of surfeit and cloy largely overlap; however, surfeit implies a nauseating repletion.