cloy

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“
The pastime had not begun to cloy, as yet, and, somehow or other, what with panting and sweating and wriggling, he got what he wanted and, worn out with pleasure, I dropped off to sleep again.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (8)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Nice library, though the white marble and the smug lions by the steps cloy, and its marble candelabra are a bit much. —  The Great California Game—Lovejoy—Jonathan Gash
  • Sometimes pitched several generations back and laced with overtly religious sentiment which surprisingly didn't cloy, whilst frequently all melting into one single existence, those might have been the moments when, if my concentration lapsed, I lost my bearings and had to retrace my steps and listen more carefully to the words on the page. —  dovegreyreader scribbles
  • It is a court of gentle and harmonious souls; and though this style of beauty might cloy, at first sight there is something ravishing in those yellow-haired, white-limbed, blooming deities. —  New Italian sketches
  • 380 The sweetest pleasures soonest cloy, And its best flavour temperance gives to joy Juvenal. —  Book of Wise Sayings Selected Largely from Eastern Sources
  • If peaceful scenes cloy, and you hanker for a thrill, drop your glance to the Colorado River, foaming and racing a mile or so below. —  I Married a Ranger
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

inny ·  abso ·  soft-toned ·  broil ·  basinful ·  tate ·  tenpenny ·  azeotrope ·  insidea ·  suckle ·  dijon ·  red-lacquered
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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-2 + Latin clāvāre, to nail (from clāvus, nail).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Old French *cloyer, variant of cloer, French clouer, nail, fasten or join with nails (in comp. encloyer (see accloy), cloy, choke or stop up, variant of enclouer, nail, drive in a nail), from clo, clou, from Latin clavus, a nail: see clove and clout.
  2. apparently a corruption of claw, v., by confusion with cloy.
  3. Origin uncertain; perhaps literally something that cloys or is sticky, < cloy, v. Otherwise for claay or cly, dial. form of clay?
 

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/klɔi/
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