stormy petrel

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.

But Leon Smith, the captain, was determined to have him here, his stormy petrel capable of all sorts of heroics in the past, a good luck charm now, and a loud one.

From The Guardian • Nov. 29, 2015

Tall, gimlet-eyed, Alabama-born J.Frank Norris, 69, rejoices in his ecclesiastical reputation as the "stormy petrel of the Southwest," and sees to it that the description keeps up-to-date.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pierre Boulez used to be the stormy petrel of contemporary music.

From Time Magazine Archive

The shabby, bright-eyed stranger who could command an audience with these famed statesmen at such an hour was none other than M. Georg Tchitcherin, famed political stormy petrel and Foreign Minister to the Soviet Union.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now it so happened that among those who were discontented for one reason or another there was that stormy petrel, General Daendels.

From The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom 1795-1813 by Van Loon, Hendrik Willem