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
Mia Leimkuhler, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
The butter helps cut through the cloying sweetness of the syrup without masking the maple flavor.
—Sarah Martens, Better Homes & Gardens, 5 Feb. 2025
As May, Chen is cloying and enthusiastic and undeniably glamorous.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 30 Jan. 2025
Similar to Glinda Pink, this specific shade of pink is soft, light, and romantic—but not too cloying.
—Marilú Almaguer, Glamour, 24 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Cloying.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cloying. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025.
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