[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.
a. 1626. Bacon, Apophth., No. 295 (1674) (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 poison the water, & 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.].
1570–6. 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. (1623), 841/2. 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., Epitaphes, etc., To Yng. Gentleman taking Wyfe, 73 b (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. Shaks., 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. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. ii. 241. Other women cloy The appetites they feede.
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.
