Antonyms for cloy

Grammar : Verb

Spell : kloi

Phonetic Transcription : klɔɪ

Definition of cloy

Origin : "weary by too much, fill to loathing, surfeit," 1520s, from Middle English cloyen "hinder movement, encumber" (late 14c.), a shortening of accloyen (early 14c.), from Old French encloer "to fasten with a nail, grip, grasp," figuratively "to hinder, check, stop, curb," from Late Latin inclavare "drive a nail into a horse's foot when shoeing," from Latin clavus "a nail" (see slot (n.2)).
Accloye is a hurt that cometh of shooing, when a Smith driveth a nail in the quick, which make him to halt. [Edward Topsell, "The History of Four-footed Beasts," 1607]
The figurative meaning "fill to a satiety, overfill" is attested for accloy from late 14c. Related: Cloyed; cloying.

verb overfill

Example sentences :

To cloy or surfeit is to gratify to the point of revulsion or disgust.
Extract from : « English Synonyms and Antonyms » by James Champlin Fernald

But I shall tire you with a theme with which I would not wish to cloy you beforehand.
Extract from : « The Works of William Cowper » by William Cowper

Over-sentimental and apt to cloy, it is eminently poetical and full of melody.
Extract from : « Masters of French Music » by Arthur Hervey

Yea but, said Carpalin, were it not good to cloy all their ordnance?
Extract from : « Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. » by Francois Rabelais

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite, By bare imagination of a feast?
Extract from : « Familiar Quotations » by Various

And he proceeded to read with a sneering imitation of Zoie's cloy sweetness.
Extract from : « Baby Mine » by Margaret Mayo

But plenteous as are the flowers of eloquence with which he presents us, their perfume, their sweetness, do not cloy.
Extract from : « The London Pulpit » by J. Ewing Ritchie

Wealth could not cloy, nor grandeur overpower, with such a mate; that was perhaps the substance of her thought.
Extract from : « My Lord Duke » by E. W. Hornung

No apricot Or greengage tart my heart hath won;Their sweetness doth but cloy and clot.
Extract from : « The Wallypug in London » by G. E. Farrow

Things agreeable enough in small quantities, pall and cloy if the ration be overmuch augmented.
Extract from : « Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 » by Various

Synonyms for cloy

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019