gadfly
any of various flies, as a stable fly or warble fly, that bite or annoy domestic animals.
a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.
Origin of gadfly
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use gadfly in a sentence
Gadflies may launch movements, but they rarely win the White House.
Bathing in Loch Fyne the next morning, he got horribly bitten by gadflies, and vented his smart in a set of doggrel rhymes.
Keats | Sidney ColvinAs they looked, a long train passed by, stung by gadflies and following a whirling standard.
National Epics | Kate Milner RabbThe weather had for a considerable time been hot and dry, and mosquitoes and gadflies were very troublesome.
Over the Rocky Mountains | R.M. BallantyneEven in England the gadflies are more than troublesome to human beings.
Bible Animals; | J. G. Wood
A good friend to horses and cattle, because he kills the terrible gadflies.
British Dictionary definitions for gadfly
/ (ˈɡædˌflaɪ) /
any of various large dipterous flies, esp the horsefly, that annoy livestock by sucking their blood
a constantly irritating or harassing person
Origin of gadfly
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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