How to Use gadfly in a Sentence

gadfly

noun

• Maybe the local gadflies would call you up, give you a tip here or there.
  — Eric Johnson, Recode, 6 Sep. 2018
• So the gadfly part of it was that there really weren’t ...
  — Eric Johnson, Vox, 26 June 2019
• There not just going to go after some gadfly, there has to be a there there.
  — Eric Johnson, Recode, 26 Aug. 2018
• There’s kind of schmoozing and being known and being a gadfly.
  — Eric Johnson, Recode, 26 Aug. 2018
• The gadfly winger scored only 90 goals in his NHL career, tying him for No.
  — Jack Dickey, SI.com, 24 Oct. 2017
• Weizman was a gadfly in the worlds of art and architecture.
  — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
• Io and Echo were robbed of their speech, one cursed to be a cow tormented by a gadfly, and the other cursed to repeat the speech of others.
  — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 19 Dec. 2017
• This Walsh had already made a name as a Tea Party gadfly and was elected to Congress in 2010.
  — Dave Holmes, Esquire, 21 Sep. 2017
• Now, in a twist that would promote the gadfly to the top of the food chain, he is poised to become the district attorney of Philadelphia.
  — Alan Feuer, New York Times, 17 June 2017
• There is the classical idea of the poet as the gadfly, who lives outside society.
  — Doreen St. Félix, Vogue, 7 Apr. 2021
• Hameroff is best known for serving as a kind of gadfly in the fields of neuroscience and philosophy.
  — Steve Volk, Discover Magazine, 1 Mar. 2018
• Bernie Sanders is the gadfly uncle, cranky but authentic.
  — Time, 27 Oct. 2022
• And his easy manner belies a stubborn streak that his neighbors see as the mark of a dangerous gadfly.
  — Written By Declan Walsh; Photographs By Tomas Munita, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2018
• Well, Ishmael, in making that statement, fulfills his obligation as a satirist, as a gadfly, as the court jester.
  — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2022
• Margaret, who views him with both affection and worry; and Burke’s boho gadfly, who takes Williams’ meds off his hands, then takes him out for a night on the town.
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 24 Dec. 2022
• McLeod, a right-wing gadfly who has twice run for San Antonio mayor, was looking to provoke.
  — Gilbert Garcia, San Antonio Express-News, 20 Jan. 2022
• If Kaepernick really was a harmless, crazy, dumb gadfly, the execs wouldn’t care.
  — Angela Denker, Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2017
• Present at the event was medical gadfly Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been campaigning against vaccines on the basis of false science since 2005.
  — Time, 13 June 2019
• Playing the role of the Socratic gadfly in the foundations of physics is sometimes important.
  — Adam Lashinsky, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2019
• Rats also gobble chicks of the gadfly petrels that nest on the island, taking out 95 percent of chicks less than a week after hatching.
  — Michael Brooke, National Geographic, 19 Apr. 2016
• The plaintiff in the case before the Court of Appeals was Robert Davis, who has filed more than 100 lawsuits and is considered a community gadfly by some.
  — Clara Hendrickson, Detroit Free Press, 18 Sep. 2020
• The weather was bad, the gadflies were annoying and the food consisted almost entirely of oatcakes and eggs.
  — Anna Russell, WSJ, 13 July 2017
• Donald Trump Jr. is implicated only in the one ill-advised and now-shown-to-be-pointless encounter with a few gadflies.
  — Ed Rogers, OrlandoSentinel.com, 28 July 2017
• Any reporter or gadfly worth their salt knew this was actually just a time for the board to call a department head onto the carpet and scream at them behind closed doors.
  — Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2023
• The gadfly of ancient Athens, patron saint of Western philosophy, and its first martyr has much to teach about modern life and business.
  — Eric Weiner, Fortune, 25 Aug. 2020
• Many brushed him off as an obstinate gadfly, but his wife and son stayed home, saving them from outings that would soon sicken relatives.
  — Dake Kang, Star Tribune, 23 Jan. 2021
• However, activists and gadflies that may own a single share of stock are at the ready, seeking to be the center of attention and perhaps even disrupting the meeting.
  — Richard Torrenzano, Fortune, 18 Jan. 2024
• Despite his often gadfly position in the GOP, there are reasons for Hawley to be optimistic.
  — Zaid Jilani, Washington Examiner, 31 Dec. 2020
• Other readers, in a suitably gadfly mode, may disagree with this criticism.
  — Martha Bayles, WSJ, 24 June 2022
• In the months since, Santos has emerged as a far-right gadfly and influencer, firing political salvos at Democrats and at moderate Republicans.
  — Brian Mann, NPR, 24 Apr. 2024

Last Updated: 13 Dec 2024