Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance.
- noun One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad.
- noun Any of various flies, especially a warble fly, botfly, or horsefly, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The popular name of sundry flies which goad or sting domestic animals, as a breeze, breeze-fly, or horse-fly; specifically, a dipterous insect of the family Tabanidæ and suborder Brachycera, representing also a superfamily Hexachætæ.
- noun A common though erroneous name of sundry flies (bot-flies) of the family Œstridæ and genus Œstrus or Hippoderma, belonging to a different series of the great order Diptera from that of gadflies proper.
- noun Figuratively, one who is constantly going about; a mischievous or annoying gadabout.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any dipterous insect of the genus Oestrus, and allied genera of botflies.
- noun (Zoöl.) one of several small petrels of the genus Oestrelata.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any
dipterous insect of thefamily Oestridae , commonly known asbotflies . - noun A
horsefly : any of various species offly , of the family Tabanidae, noted forbuzzing about animals andsucking their blood. - noun One who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions, or attempts to stimulate innovation by proving an irritant.
- noun pejorative One who merely irritates without making useful suggestions.
- noun slang A bloodsucker
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a persistently annoying person
- noun any of various large flies that annoy livestock
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Being a gadfly is certainly a role, and occasionally a helpful one.
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Being a gadfly is certainly a role, and occasionally a helpful one.
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Being a gadfly is certainly a role, and occasionally a helpful one.
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And sometimes the gadfly is off base and really doesn't understand what is going on.
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The Alaskan resident – now being referred to as a gadfly – criticized where she felt it was due and gave credit where it appeared there should be some.
Anne Kilkenny…e-mail offensive to Palin? Zimbio leaked it… « Julian Ayrs & Pop Culture 2008
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History shows that once in a while even a so-called gadfly has been able to effect change.
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History shows that once in a while even a so-called gadfly has been able to effect change.
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Boris Pincus, a former Queens resident who serves as Republican District Leader of Assembly District 45 in Brooklyn, has long been known as a gadfly within the Bukharian community who is biting in his criticism of the communal leadership.
unknown title 2009
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Boris Pincus, a former Queens resident who serves as Republican District Leader of Assembly District 45 in Brooklyn, has long been known as a gadfly within the Bukharian community who is biting in his criticism of the communal leadership.
unknown title 2009
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Q: You've been called a gadfly, a consumer activist.
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