cloy

/klɔɪ/

Other forms: cloying; cloyed; cloys

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.

Definitions of cloy

1. verb

   become sickeningly sweet or excessive
   synonyms: surfeit

   type of:

   furnish, provide, render, supply

   give something useful or necessary to
2. verb

   cause distaste in or weariness of something by providing too much of it
   “Too much spicy food cloyed his appetite”

   synonyms: pall

   type of:

   fill, replete, sate, satiate

   fill to satisfaction