accloy

EN
verb

🇺🇸

male

🇺🇸

female

🇬🇧

male

🇬🇧

female

Word Forms

Past Tense

accloyed

Past Participle

accloyed

Gerund

accloying

3rd Person

accloys

Description

Accloy is a formal, literary verb meaning to disgust or sicken someone by giving them too much of something pleasant—especially sweetness, richness, or emotional intensity—until it becomes overwhelming or unpleasant. Think of eating so much candy that you feel nauseous, or watching a movie so overly sentimental that it makes you roll your eyes.

Examples

The dessert was so rich and sugary it began to accloy after just two bites.

His constant flattery soon accloyed her, turning charm into irritation.

The film's excessive nostalgia and saccharine dialogue risked accloying even its most devoted fans.

That perfume is beautiful at first, but its intensity quickly accloys the nose.

Don't let the abundance of detail accloy the narrative—keep the pacing tight.

Root

cloy

Comes from Middle English 'cloyen', derived from Old English 'clēofian' (to stick, adhere, glut), ultimately related to Proto-Germanic '*klaubōną'. It carries the core meaning of 'to satiate to the point of disgust or nausea; to clog or overload with excess, especially sweetness or sentiment'. Examples include cloy, accloy, cloying, cloyed.