Definitions

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

  • verb Present participle of cloy.
  • adjective Unpleasantly excessive.
  • adjective Excessively sweet.

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

  • adjective overly sweet

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • It's a form of the verb cloy and it means "overly filling" as in food.

    August 21, 2008

  • I thought that it meant suffocatingly sweet?

    August 21, 2008

  • In modern usage, this word does usually mean "excessively sweet", with regard to taste, odor, or literary style.

    August 24, 2008

  • “The prosperous-looking man mopped his streaming brow with a large peach-colored handkerchief that sent a cloying fragrance to war with the stenches of the street.”

    —Gene Wolfe, The Book of the Long Sun

    July 30, 2009

  • From the book White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Pg.137

    "The sticky cloying taste lingered as i sat on my ripcord bedspread and combed my hair with Olivia's comb."

    November 1, 2010