gadfly
gadfly Lexical Profile
gadfly Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An annoying or provocative person, especially one who persistently challenges, criticizes, or goads people in positions of power or established social institutions.
"The investigative journalist acted as a political gadfly, constantly questioning the city council's budget decisions."
Any of various Dipteran flies (especially of the families Tabanidae and Oestridae, such as the horsefly or botfly) that bite, sting, or annoy livestock and other mammals.
"The cattle swished their tails continuously to ward off the biting gadflies in the summer pasture."
• Rhymes for gadfly
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the late 16th century from obsolete English 'gad' (from Old Norse 'gaddr', meaning a goad or spike) combined with 'fly'. The figurative sense of a persistent social critic alludes to Socrates, who famously described himself in Plato's 'Apology' as a gadfly sent to sting the sluggish horse of Athenian society into moral awareness.