gadfly
/ˈɡadflʌɪ
/noun (plural gadflies)
1A fly that bites livestock, especially a horsefly, warble fly, or botfly.Later, Hera sent the notorious gadfly to continuously bite and irritate Io....
- She was tormented by a furious little gadfly that bit her mercilessly, though she flicked her tail this way and that.
- Zeus had once tried to seduce the lovely Io, but Hera, his jealous wife, had discovered her husband's intentions and turned poor Io into a cow, left to wander about the earth, constantly pursued and tormented by a pestilent gadfly.
1.1A person who annoys or criticizes others in order to provoke them into action: always a gadfly, he attacked intellectual orthodoxies...
- But he admits he is curious: what has the liberal gadfly done to annoy so many conservatives like him?
- The gadfly soon became an annoyance to both the MTA and the union, creating a newsletter which aired workers' grievances but criticised alleged union inaction.
- I have always considered him sort of a Socratic gadfly.
Origin
Late 16th century: from gad1, or obsolete gad 'goad, spike', from Old Norse gaddr, of Germanic origin; related to yard1.