To become sickeningly sweet or cloying, to overwhelm with excessive sweetness or sentimentality. When too much of a good thing becomes nauseating.
From Spanish, possibly from 'em-' (in) + 'palagar' (related to 'paladar,' meaning palate). The word originally described the physical sensation of being overwhelmed by excessive sweetness on the palate, then expanded metaphorically to describe anything that becomes sickening through excess — overly sentimental movies, cloying romance, or saccharine behavior.
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