Word of the Day Archive
Sunday April 3, 2005
cloy \KLOY\ , transitive verb:
1. To weary by excess, especially of sweetness, richness, pleasure, etc.
intransitive verb:
1. To become distasteful through an excess usually of something originally pleasing.
The opulence, the music, the gouty food -- all start to cloy my senses.
-- Jeffrey Tayler, "The Moscow Rave part two: I Have Payments to Make on My Mink", Atlantic, December 31, 1997
I use orange and lemon zest in the recipe and a drizzle of soured cream at the table to take away its tendency to cloy.
-- Nigel Slater, "Cream tease", The Observer, December 14, 2003
The soft Orvieto Abboccato has just enough sweetness to please but not to cloy, a friendly character that tempts one to linger over a second glass.
-- George Pandi, "Orvieto's pleasures deserve to be savored like its wine", Boston Herald, July 18, 2004
Cloy is short for obsolete accloy, "to clog," alteration of Middle English acloien, "to lame," from Middle French encloer, "to drive a nail into," from Medieval Latin inclavare, from Latin in, "in" + clavus, "nail."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for cloy
