Cloy
name, verb ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 To fill up or choke up; to stop up. transitive
- 2 cause surfeit through excess though initially pleasing wordnet
- 3 To clog, to glut, or satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate. transitive
- 4 supply or feed to surfeit wordnet
- 5 To fill to loathing; to surfeit. transitive
"Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so."
- 1 A male given name.
"The third Iraq veteran -- 23-year-old Cloy Richards of Salem, Missouri, who was wounded in combat -- will avoid losing his disability benefits after agreeing not to wear his uniform at future protests, the Marine Corps said."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples""Not so; though glory wait not on the act; / though poor the praise, and barren be the gain, / vengeance on feeble woman to exact, / yet praised hereafter shall his name remain, / who purges earth of such a monstrous stain. / Sweet is the passion of vindictive joy, / sweet is the punishment, where just the pain, / sweet the fierce ardour of revenge to cloy, / and slake with Dardan blood the funeral flames of Troy.""
Etymology
From an aphetic form of Middle English acloyen, from Old French enclouer, encloer, from Vulgar Latin *inclāvāre, from Late Latin clāvāre, from Latin clāvus.
Related phrases
More for "cloy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.