How to Use cloy in a Sentence
cloy
verb
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The slight smokiness of the Scotch and the ginger cut through the oft-cloying sweetness and thick texture of the eggnog.
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Alyse Whitney,
Bon Appetit,
6 Dec. 2017
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The whole thing manages to be sweet, and funny, and not cloying in the way of so much kid-centric programming.
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Sophie Kemp,
Vogue,
24 Dec. 2019
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The use of music — more filler than necessary at times — is also cloying.
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Alan Zilberman,
Twin Cities,
4 July 2019
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What wasn’t cloying in that finale on Sunday was the music — the orchestra swirling and shining, the chorus rich and full-bodied.
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Zachary Woolfe,
New York Times,
23 May 2017
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In retrospect, some of the things that wouldn’t work quite as well about the series (like cloying, overobvious song choices) were present from the very first episode, too.
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Todd Vanderwerff,
Slate Magazine,
20 Dec. 2017
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Tea also solves the most common problem of mocktails — cloying sweetness.
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Joy Manning,
Philly.com,
12 July 2018
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The result is not cloying, however, and mascarpone along with blackberry sauce keep the sugar in check.
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Becky Krystal,
Washington Post,
19 Oct. 2019
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On the other hand, semi-sweet or milk chocolate can sometimes be cloying because there isn’t that bitter contrast.
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Jennifer Farley,
charlotteobserver,
10 Apr. 2018
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His bleak and jaded worldview is tempered by an unflagging, never cloying faith in love and its ability to transcend the muck and vile.
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Carlos Valladares,
SFChronicle.com,
4 Nov. 2019
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No Passover Seder seemed authentic without its square-shaped, ripple-faced matzo and a shot or more of the syrupy Concord grape wine that many find cloying yet nostalgic.
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Joseph Berger,
New York Times,
2 Aug. 2019
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Well that’s because when the cookies are good, there’s little else that’s so perfectly fudgy but not dense, sweet but not cloying, satisfying, without putting you over the edge.
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Alex Pastron,
Bon Appétit,
4 Feb. 2020
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Plenty sweet, to be sure, but certainly not cloying, and despite the grapes’ long hang time the flavors are perfectly fresh — pert and bright, as opposed to the stewy-fruit notes that often burden late-harvest wines.
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Esther Mobley,
SFChronicle.com,
11 July 2019
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As in the previous films, the pilgrims stay in the most picturesque places, and are served the most sumptuous meals, the preparation of which Mr. Winterbottom uses as a visual digestif when his two stars begin to cloy.
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John Anderson,
WSJ,
10 Aug. 2017
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Instead, charm abounds: not cloying, but without consequence.
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Alastair MacAulay,
New York Times,
28 Sep. 2017
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Other brands’ seltzers were perfectly dry, but the synthetic flavors felt cloying in their own way and left an unpleasantly bitter aftertaste.
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Esther Mobley,
SFChronicle.com,
20 Aug. 2019
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Whatever the outcome of Trump’s decision, his dilemma is just another example of him cloyed in the sticky reality of governing.
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Isobel Thompson,
The Hive,
9 May 2017
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Her 2014 autobiography, A Fighting Chance, and recent stump speeches are festooned in pep club spirit and folksy blandishments, cloying bits of business that have attached themselves to her life story.
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Caroline Fraser,
The New York Review of Books,
13 Feb. 2020
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The Cold Blue builds a mesmerizing historical journey with a one-two punch of technological wizardry and emotional but never cloying artistry.
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Chuck Thompson,
Popular Mechanics,
16 May 2019
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This is not entirely a bad thing, and the movie, which begins streaming Friday on Disney+, emerges a generally charming, sometimes cloying exercise in wildlife anthropomorphism.
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Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2020
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Holland calibrates this really well, turning in an endlessly likable performance that never cloys or grows sticky with precociousness.
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Richard Lawson,
HWD,
29 June 2017
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cloy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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