Meaning of Gadfly | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any dipterous (“two-winged”) insect or fly of the family Oestridae (commonly known as a botfly) or Tabanidae (horsefly), noted for irritating animals by buzzing about them, and biting them to suck their blood; a gadbee.
2. A person or thing that irritates or instigates.
   also, attributive, figuratively
3. A person who upsets the status quo by posing novel or upsetting questions, or attempts to stimulate innovation by being an irritant.
   also, attributive, figuratively, specifically
4. Synonym of gadabout (“a person who restlessly moves from place to place, seeking amusement or the companionship of others”).
   also, attributive, figuratively
5. A person who takes without giving back; a bloodsucker.
   also, attributive, derogatory, figuratively, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“He that made that ryme in jeſt, little conſidered what a gad-fly may doe in earneſt. It is ſmall wiſedome to contemne the ſmalleſt enemy; the gad-fly is a little creature, but ſome little creatures be ſtingers; […]”

“Light fly his ſlumbers, if perchance a flight / Of angry gad-flies faſten on the herd; […]”

“The nomads of Africa are constrained to wander by the attacks of the gadfly, which drives the cattle mad, and so compels the tribe to emigrate in the rainy season and drive off the cattle to the higher sandy regions.”

“Vengeful Hera transformed her [Io] into an animal (a beautiful cow), and imposed upon her the company of a gadfly to sting her continuously, thus forcing her to escape on an endless pilgrimage.”

“VVhat gad flye tickles ſo this Macrinus, / That vp-flinging thy tayle, he breakes thus from me.”

“There is a function for the gadfly who poses questions that many specialists would like to overlook. Polemics is healthy.”

“What was required now was the intervention of some men who were not gadflies. […] The logic of [Charles] Pearson's arguments was accepted, up to a point, by a consortium of businessmen. In August 1854, […] the consortium obtained royal assent for […] the Metropolitan Railway. […] In 1859, when it looked as though the Metropolitan Railway Company would be wound up with no line built, he [Pearson] wrote a pamphlet: A Twenty Minutes Letter to the Citizens of London in Favour of the Metropolitan Railway and City Station. Gadfly he may have been, but by this 'letter' he persuaded the Corporation of London to invest £200,000 in the line, a most unusual example of a public body investing in a Victorian railway.”

“Dr. [Carl] Hart, 54, the first tenured African-American science professor at Columbia, is a gadfly among drug researchers and a rock star among advocates for decriminalizing drugs.”

“VVhat VVinnie? VVife, I ſay? out of dores at this time! vvhere ſhould I ſeeke the Gad-flye?”

“VVhere are thoſe gad-flies going? to ſome Junket novv; […]”

“[Y]our Harriet may turn gadfly, and never be eaſy but vvhen ſhe is forming parties, or giving vvay to them, that may make the home, that hitherto has been the chief ſcene of her pleaſures, undelightful to her.”

“He’s a regular gadfly and takes advantage of his friend’s generosity.”

CEFR level