gadfly

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Fleming, meanwhile, hasn’t had much to spend, and has always been somewhat of a gadfly going back to his years in the House of Representatives.

From Slate • May 16, 2026

“LLMs themselves are more or less just as unreliable as they were ever,” says AI researcher and gadfly Gary Marcus.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

That’s because in Austin, Harrison is viewed as a gadfly, with few legislative victories or allies.

From Salon • Oct. 16, 2025

For decades, he also relished his role as a brutally insulting critic — sometimes of the bands he worked with — and a gadfly who pushed uncomfortable buttons about race, politics and sex.

From New York Times • May 14, 2024

Concluding that economics, not politics, held the key to black success in America, Moore started a new career as a corporate gadfly, disrupting stockholders' meetings with pointed questions about racial policies and hiring practices.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson