cloying

By surface analysis, cloy +‎ -ing.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklɔɪ.ɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪɪŋ

• Audio (US):

  (file)

cloying

1. present participle and gerund of cloy

cloying (comparative more cloying, superlative most cloying)

1. Unpleasantly excessive.

   The cloying fondness she displayed was what, in the end, drove me away.

   • August 16 2014, Daniel Taylor, "Swansea upstage Manchester United in Louis van Gaal’s Premier League bow," guardian.co.uk:

     It was a cloying sense of deja vu attached to the team that finished seventh last season, 22 points off the top and drastically in need of some more dynamism.

2. Excessively sweet.
   • 2023, Emerald Fennell, 1:38:29 from the start, in Saltburn:

     Oliver (Barry Keoghan): I don't normally like chocolate cake. / Elspeth (Rosamund Pike): Yes, it can be cloying, can't it?

• (unpleasantly excessive): exaggerated
• (excessively sweet): syrupy, treacly, oversweet, saccharine

• clove