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gadfly - 5 dictionary results

gad⋅fly

  [gad-flahy]
Use gadfly in a Sentence
–noun, plural -flies.
1. any of various flies, as a stable fly or warble fly, that bite or annoy domestic animals.
2. a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.
Origin:
1585–95; gad 2 + fly 2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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gad·fly   (gād'flī')   
n.  
  1. A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance.
  2. One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad.
  3. Any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals.

[gad2 + fly2.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gadfly

Gad"fly`\, n.; pl. Gadflies. [Gad + fly.] (Zo["o]l.) Any dipterous insect of the genus Oestrus, and allied genera of botflies.

Note: The sheep gadfly (Oestrus ovis) deposits its young in the nostrils of sheep, and the larv[ae] develop in the frontal sinuses. The common species which infests cattle (Hypoderma bovis) deposits its eggs upon or in the skin where the larv[ae] or bots live and produce sores called wormels. The gadflies of the horse produce the intestinal parasites called bots. See Botfly, and Bots. The true horseflies are often erroneously called gadflies, and the true gadflies are sometimes incorrectly called breeze flies.

Gadfly petrel (Zo["o]l.), one of several small petrels of the genus Oestrelata.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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gadfly  (n.)
1626, "fly which bites cattle," probably from gad "goad, metal rod" (c.1225), here in the sense of "stinger," from O.N. gaddr "spike, nail," from P.Gmc. *gadaz "pointed stick;" but sense is entangled with gad (v.) and an early meaning of gadfly was also "someone who likes to go about, often stopping here and there." Sense of "one who irritates another" is from 1649 (equivalent of L. oestrus).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: gad·fly
Pronunciation: 'gad-"flI
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural -flies
: any of various flies (as a horsefly,botfly, or warble fly) that bite or annoy livestock
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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