Elysa Gardner 
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We won’t bore you with the sappy tale behind the word cloying, because happily, there isn’t one. That’s because its history isn’t sweet, but rather tough as nails. Cloying comes from the verb cloy, which had among its earliest uses the meaning (to quote the Oxford English Dictionary) “to render [a gun] useless by driving a spike or plug into the touch-hole.” This ultra-specific sense of clogging and stuffing arose alongside both broader and figurative ones, including “to fill or choke up,” and cloy has since come to mean “to supply or indulge to excess.” Accordingly, cloying implies a nauseating amount of something that might be pleasing in smaller doses, especially both literal and metaphorical sweetness.
Examples of cloying in a Sentence
Connie Ogle, Miami Herald, 27 June 2025
Consider lemons, limes, stone fruit, green apple, white peach, or tart cherries—these flavors feel light, lively, and energizing, not cloying, explains Madeline Gordon, general manager at Wine & Rind.
—Karla Walsh, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 June 2025
Despite its fame, the wine is measured and clean, not cloying.
—Rachel King, Forbes.com, 14 June 2025
In terms of avoiding any pedant or cloying changes in the storytelling, hiring DeBlois to shepherd the film from one iteration to another was a wise choice.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 10 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for cloying
Cite this Entry
“Cloying.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloying. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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