gadfly

1. (figurative, also attributive)Examples: "VVhat gad flye tickles ſo this Macrinus, / That vp-flinging thy tayle, he breakes thus from me."alsoattributivefiguratively

2. (figurative, also attributive)Examples: "There is a function for the gadfly who poses questions that many specialists would like to overlook. Polemics is healthy."; "What was required now was the intervention of some men who were not gadflies. […] The logic of [Charles] Pearson's arguments was accepted, up to a point, by a consortium of businessmen. In August 1854, […] the consortium obtained royal assent for […] the Metropolitan Railway. […] In 1859, when it looked as though the Metropolitan Railway Company would be wound up with no line built, he [Pearson] wrote a pamphlet: A Twenty Minutes Letter to the Citizens of London in Favour of the Metropolitan Railway and City Station. Gadfly he may have been, but by this 'letter' he persuaded the Corporation of London to invest £200,000 in the line, a most unusual example of a public body investing in a Victorian railway."; "Dr. [Carl] Hart, 54, the first tenured African-American science professor at Columbia, is a gadfly among drug researchers and a rock star among advocates for decriminalizing drugs."Synonyms: eccentric, free spirit, heteroclite, individualist, maverick, misfit, nonconformist, offbeatalsoattributivefigurativelyspecifically

3. (figurative, also attributive)Examples: "VVhat VVinnie? VVife, I ſay? out of dores at this time! vvhere ſhould I ſeeke the Gad-flye?"; "VVhere are thoſe gad-flies going? to ſome Junket novv; […]"; "[Y]our Harriet may turn gadfly, and never be eaſy but vvhen ſhe is forming parties, or giving vvay to them, that may make the home, that hitherto has been the chief ſcene of her pleaſures, undelightful to her."Synonyms: social butterfly, gadaboutalsoattributivefiguratively

4. (figurative, also attributive)Examples: "He’s a regular gadfly and takes advantage of his friend’s generosity."Synonyms: bloodsucker, bummer, freeloader, free rider, gadfly, leech, mooch, moocheralsoattributivederogatoryfigurativelyslang