▪ I. cloy, v.1
(klɔɪ)
[Aphetic form of acloy, accloy; but it is possible that sense 1 directly represents OF. cloye-r, mod. clou-er to nail. Senses 5–8 appear to run together with those of clog v.]
† 1. trans. To nail, to fasten with a nail. Obs.
| c 1400 Beryn 3464 Hym list to dryv in bet the nayll, til they wer fully Cloyid. |
† 2. To prick (a horse) with a nail in shoeing; = accloy 1. Obs.
| 1530 Palsgr. 487/2, I cloye a horse, I drive a nayle in to the quycke of his foote. Jencloue... A smyth hath cloyed my horse. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 267 When a horse is shouldered..or his hoof cloid with a nail. 1625 Bacon Apophth. (R.), He would have made the worst farrier in the world; for he never shod horse but he cloyed him. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3) s.v., Cloyed or Accloyed, us'd by Farriers, when a Horse is pricked with a Nail in Shoeing. |
† 3. To pierce as with a nail, to gore. rare.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vi. 48 That foe..of his [a wild boar], Which with his cruell tuske him deadly cloyd. |
† 4. To spike (a gun), i.e. to render it useless by driving a spike or plug into the touch-hole. Obs.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. IV. 192 [They] stopped and cloied the touch holes of three peeces of the artillerie. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 801 They should..cloy the great ordinance, that it might not afterwards stand the Turks in stead. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. ii. ii. 165 Hauing brought with them..spykes, to cloy the Ordinance. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. 19 Be sure that none of our Guns be cloy'd. 1711 Military & Sea Dict. s.v. Nail, To Nail Cannon, or, as some call it, To Cloy..but this is an antiquated Word. 1768 E. Buys Dict. Terms of Art s.v. Cloyed, a Piece of Ordnance is said to be cloyed, when any Thing is got into the Touch-hole. |
† 5. To stop up, block, obstruct, choke up (a passage, channel, etc.); to crowd or fill up. Obs.
| 1548 W. Patten Expedition Scotl. in Arb. Garner III. 86 These keepers had rammed up their outer doors, cloyed and stopped up their stairs within, etc. 1570 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 89 The fresh is not able to checke the salt water that cloyeth the chanell. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxvii. (1887) 165 Those professions and occupations, which be most cloyed vp with number. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xvi. (1632) 841 The Dukes purpose was to haue cloyed the harbour by sinking ships laden with stones, and such like choaking materials. 1636 Bolton Florus 204 The Alps themselves heapt high with winter snowes, and so the wayes cloyed up. 1636 G. Sandys Paraphr. Div. Poems, Lam. ii. (1648) 5 Thy Anger cloyes the Grave. |
† 6. fig. To clog, obstruct, or impede (movement, activity, etc.); to weigh down, encumber. Obs.
| 1564 Becon Flower Godly Prayers (1844) 18 That heavy bondage of the flesh, wherewith I am most grievously cloyed. 1567 Turberv. Poems, To Yng. Gentleman taking Wyfe (R.), A bearing wyfe with brats will cloy thee sore. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 137 Beyng clogged and fastened to this state of bondage (as it were cloyed in claye). 1665 Glanvill Sceps. Sci. i. 3 The soul being not cloy'd by an unactive mass, as now. |
7. To overload with food, so as to cause loathing; to surfeit or satiate (with over-feeding, or with richness, sweetness, or sameness of food).
| 1530 Palsgr. 487/2, I cloye, I charge ones stomacke with to moche meate..You have cloyed hym so moche that he is sicke nowe. 1586 Cogan Haven Health cliii. (1636) 148 The fat of flesh alone without leane is unwholesome, and cloyeth the stomach. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 296 Who can..cloy the hungry edge of appetite by bare imagination of a Feast? 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. (1651) 323 They being alwayes accustomed to the same dishes..are therefore cloyed. 1748 Anson's Voy. ii. xii. 266 Though this was a food that we had now been so long..confined to..yet we were far from being cloyed with it. 1857 De Quincey Goldsmith Wks. VI. 197 To be cloyed perpetually is a worse fate than sometimes to stand within the vestibule of starvation. |
8. fig. To satiate, surfeit, gratify beyond desire; to disgust, weary (with excess of anything).
| 1576 Gascoigne Compl. Philomene (Arb.) 92 Both satisfied with deepe delight, And cloyde with al content. 1588 J. Udall Diotrephes (Arb.) 17 Often preaching cloyeth the people. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 241. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia i. 17 But not to cloy you with particulars..I refer you to the Authors owne writing. 1752 Fielding Amelia iv. ii, Amelia's superiority to her whole sex, who could not cloy a gay young fellow by many years possession. 1819 Byron Juan i. i, After cloying the gazettes with cant. |
| absol. 1639 Fuller Holy War v. xxvi. (1840) 288 These are enough to satisfy, more would cloy. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. ii. 227 The two frequent Recurrency of Concords cloys. 1829 H. Neele Lit. Rem. 32 His [Pope's] sweetness cloys at last. |
b. intr. (for refl.) To become satiated. rare.
| 1721 Ramsay Tartana 160 If Sol himself should shine thro' all the day, We cloy, and lose the pleasure of his ray. |
¶ To starve. (Some error.)
| 1570 Levins Manip. 214/12 To cloy, fame consumere. |
▪ II. † cloy, v.2 Obs. rare—1.
Steevens conjectures ‘To claw, to scratch with the claw’; Johnson: ‘perhaps, to strike the beak together.’
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 118 His Royall Bird Prunes the immortall wing, and cloyes his Beake, As when his God is pleas'd. |
▪ III. cloy, v.3
see cly.