Word Study
gadfly
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun gadfly has 2 senses
- gadfly(n = noun.person) blighter, cuss, pest, pesterer - a persistently annoying person; Array has particulars: nudnick, nudnik
- gadfly(n = noun.animal) Array - any of various large flies that annoy livestock; Array is a kind of fly
is a kind of persecutor, tormenter, tormentor
has particulars: botfly, warble fly, cleg, clegg, horse fly, horsefly
CIDE DICTIONARY
gadfly, n. [Gad + fly.].
Any dipterous insect of the genus Oestrus , and allied genera of botflies. [1913 Webster]
" The sheep gadfly (Oestrus ovis ) deposits its young in the nostrils of sheep, and the larvæ develop in the frontal sinuses. The common species which infests cattle (Hypoderma bovis ) deposits its eggs upon or in the skin where the larvæ 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 ."
[1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
gadfly, n. (pl. -flies)
1 a cattle-biting fly, esp. a warble fly, horsefly, or bot-fly.
2 an irritating or harassing person.
1 a cattle-biting fly, esp. a warble fly, horsefly, or bot-fly.
2 an irritating or harassing person.
Etymology
obs. gad goad, spike f. ON gaddr, rel. to YARD(1)
THESAURUS
gadfly
abettor, actuator, animator, cajoler, coax, coaxer, encourager, energizer, firer, gad, galvanizer, goad, impeller, inducer, inspirer, lash, mover, moving spirit, oxgoad, persuader, pleader, prick, prime mover, prod, prompter, rowel, spark, spark plug, sparker, spur, stimulator, sting, tempter, wheedler, whip, whiplash
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