as in nuisances
one who is obnoxiously annoying
the journalist was known as a gadfly for exposing hypocrisy in politics
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Recent Examples of gadflies
Renewable energy advocates treat activists like Gilbert as relentless gadflies who need to be stopped for the good of the planet.
—
Tony Schick, ProPublica, 14 Aug. 2025
Doubling as an account of modern American conservatism (from media gadflies to six Supreme Court justices), the film is punctuated with contemporaneous footage that, viewed through the lens of Olin’s misdeeds, generates the tension and shock of a genre film.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 Aug. 2025
Tony Schick, ProPublica, 14 Aug. 2025
Doubling as an account of modern American conservatism (from media gadflies to six Supreme Court justices), the film is punctuated with contemporaneous footage that, viewed through the lens of Olin’s misdeeds, generates the tension and shock of a genre film.
—Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gadflies
Noun
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Yellow fever, Zika and more There are over 200 types of mosquitoes in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but most are just nuisances.—
Mary Walrath-Holdridge,
USA Today,
29 Oct. 2025
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Decades ago, marshes were considered nuisances, soggy flats to be drained, dried, and made waterproof with liberal coatings of asphalt.—
Justin Davidson,
Curbed,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
This will reduce the number of snails and other pests that overwinter nearby and feed on your plants in spring.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
31 Oct. 2025
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Efforts to trap and humanely euthanize pests comes with expenses estimated at over $100 million annually.—
Michael Nied,
PEOPLE,
29 Oct. 2025
Noun
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But that conspiracy tends to manifest in the form of universal contemporary annoyances.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
30 Oct. 2025
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One of my long-standing annoyances with macOS was the lack of control over the menu bar.—
Edward Mendelson,
PC Magazine,
15 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Gadflies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gadflies. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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