Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cause distaste or disgust by supplying with too much of something originally pleasant, especially something rich or sweet; surfeit.
  • intransitive verb To be too filling, rich, or sweet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To stroke with a claw.
  • To pierce; gore.
  • In farriery, to prick (a horse) in shoeing.
  • To stop up; obstruct; clog.
  • To spike; drive a spike into the vent of: as, to cloy a gun.
  • To satiate; gratify to repletion or so as to cause loathing; surfeit; sate.
  • Synonyms Sate, etc. (see satisfy), pall, glut, gorge.
  • noun An artificial mixture of plastic character, in this respect resembling clay.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To fill or choke up; to stop up; to clog.
  • transitive verb To glut, or satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate; to fill to loathing; to surfeit.
  • transitive verb To penetrate or pierce; to wound.
  • transitive verb obsolete To spike, as a cannon.
  • transitive verb obsolete To stroke with a claw.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To fill up or choke up; to stop up.
  • verb transitive To clog, to glut, or satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate.
  • verb transitive To fill to loathing; to surfeit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause surfeit through excess though initially pleasing
  • verb supply or feed to surfeit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for obsolete accloy, to clog, from Middle English acloien, from Old French encloer, to drive a nail into, from Medieval Latin inclāvāre : Latin in-, in; see in– + Latin clāvāre, to nail (from clāvus, nail).]

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Examples

  • Bad as was to me this detection by San Carlo, this-frost in July, this blow from a bride, there was still a worse, namely the cloy or satiety of the saints.

    Representative Men 2006

  • In the words of this table _oi_ and _oy_ are pronounced alike. coy coil join loin toil soil foist boil coin cloy point broil joist hoist joint enjoy voice royal noise spoil moist avoid choice annoy doily employ oyster anoint poison boiler

    The Beacon Second Reader Edna T. [Illustrator] Hart 1899

  • Yet predictable and familiar though they may be, in "Falling Skies" they do not cloy.

    Hollow Points and Cream Puffs Nancy deWolf Smith 2011

  • I played it several times and it was OK but after a while the game sarted to cloy on me.

    New Ogres on the Horizon? « Third Point of Singularity 2010

  • The fact that I first met it as part of a pavlova didn't help: the deep clouds of snow-white sugar-cake need a fruit with a sting in its tail (the Antipodeans are bang on with their inclusion of passion fruit) if the dessert isn't to cloy.

    Tender delights Nigel Slater 2010

  • Not that she found kisses were not sweet, but that she feared with repetition they would cloy.

    WHEN GOD LAUGHS 2010

  • Yet predictable and familiar though they may be, in "Falling Skies" they do not cloy.

    Hollow Points and Cream Puffs Nancy deWolf Smith 2011

  • Something in this resembles the versatile split-second shift from cloy to edge, from acrid to sentiment and back again, in Emin's work; the neon Be Faithful to your dreams (1998) next to Good Smile Great Come (2000) next to MY CUNT IS WET WITH FEAR (1998) next to Love is What You Want (2011).

    Tracey Emin: 'What you see is what I am' 2011

  • In the kitchen I find adding lemon, in the form of syrup, zest or juice, has a dazzling effect, removing at once their tendency to cloy.

    Nigel Slater's peach recipes 2010

  • Hitchcock is not cloy or vague about what happens to Marion.

    Scary vs. Horrifying 2010

Comments

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  • "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale

    Her infinite variety: other women cloy

    The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry

    Where most she satisfies."

    (William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra)

    August 24, 2008

  • Ooh, that's good. In every way.

    August 24, 2008

  • Wonderful, Prolagus! While of course I know and love the word cloying, it never occurred to me to wonder about the verb it comes from. Now I've added it to my "old but still juicy" list.

    I love the quote: "she makes hungry / where most she satisfies" – delicious. That Bill Shakespeare sure could write.

    August 24, 2008