cloy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb supply or feed to surfeit
    surfeit.
  2. verb cause surfeit through excess though initially pleasing
    pall.
    • Too much spicy food cloyed his appetite

WordNet

Cloy transitive verb
Etymology
OE. cloer to nail up, F. clouer, fr. OF. clo nail, F. clou, fr. L. clavus nail. Cf. 3d Clove.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Cloyed present participle & verbal noun Cloying
Definitions
  1. To fill or choke up; to stop up; to clog. Obs.
    The duke's purpose was to have cloyed the harbor by sinking ships, laden with stones. Speed.
  2. To glut, or satisfy, as the appetite; to satiate; to fill to loathing; to surfeit.
    [Who can] cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast? Shak.
    He sometimes cloys his readers instead of satisfying. Dryden.
  3. To penetrate or pierce; to wound.
    Which, with his cruel tusk, him deadly cloyed. Spenser.
    He never shod horse but he cloyed him. Bacon.
  4. To spike, as a cannon. Obs. Johnson.
  5. To stroke with a claw. Obs. Shak.

Webster 1913