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View synonyms for cloying

cloying

[ kloi-ing ]

adjective

  1. causing or tending to cause disgust or aversion through excess:

    a perfume of cloying sweetness.

  2. overly ingratiating or sentimental.


cloying

/ ˈklɔɪɪŋ /

adjective

  1. initially pleasurable or sweet but wearying in excess


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Derived Forms

  • ˈcloyingly, adverb

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Other Words From

  • cloying·ly adverb
  • un·cloying adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of cloying1

First recorded in 1540–50; cloy + -ing 2

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Example Sentences

And sure, this product—made from French vodka—is cloying in its sweetness.

After all, The Selfish Giant is one of the most cloying works in literature.

Cranberry sauce should be sweet but not cloying, and tart without causing pucker and anguish.

This is not to suggest Ann is cloying or offputtingly perfect.

He has also drawn remarkable performances from the child actors, who always seem expressive and believable, never cloying.

The Adagio is very fine in its way, but such is its cloying sweetness that one longs for something bracing and active.

They were so spicy, so woodsy, so redolent of a fine sweetness that had no cloying element in it.

The fawning of Society begins to pall after a week's experience of its cloying sweetness.

He swerved around cloying drifts of snow, he avoided holding ruts, he picked the icy sweeps of the road.

Following these lines, in his early piece, came others disfigured by cloying touches of the kind too common in his love-scenes.

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