ˈgad-ˌfly
[f. gad n.1]
1. The popular name of a fly which bites and goads cattle, esp. a fly of the genus Tabanus or of the genus Œstrus; a bot-fly, breeze.
| 1626 T. H. Caussin's Holy Crt. 120 It was like..as a bull stung with a Gad-fly. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 499 Light fly his slumbers, if perchance a flight Of angry gadflies fasten on the herd. 1831 Youatt Horse xiii. (1843) 289 A species of gad-fly, the œstrus equi, is in the latter part of the summer exceedingly busy about horses. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Ser. i. i. (1876) 25 The nomads of Africa were constrained to wander by the attacks of the gadfly, which drives the cattle mad. |
2. fig. One who irritates, torments, or worries another. Also (after L. œstrus), an irresistible impulse to some course of action.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, cccxlvii, Rather then have the Gad-flyes of an ill-Disposed Army on their shoulders feed. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 243 It is our misfortune to be frequently pestered..by certain critical gad-flies. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 314 Bitten with the Anglo-Saxon gadfly that drives us all to disenchant artifice. |
† 3. With allusion to gad v. a. In phrase to have a gad-fly: to be fond of ‘gadding about’.
| 1591 Lyly Sappho ii. iii, My mistresse, I thinke, hath got a gadfly, never at home, and yet none can tell where abroade. 1754 Richardson Grandison I. viii, You have neither wings to your shoulder, nor gad-fly in your cap: you love home. |
† b. A person who is constantly ‘gadding about’.
| 1614 Beaum. & Fl. Wit. at Sev. Weapons iv. ii, Where are those gad-flies going? to some junket now. 1754 Richardson Grandison I. xviii. 125 Your Harriet may turn gad-fly, and never be easy but when she is forming parties. |
4. attrib., as gad-fly time; gad-fly haunted adj.
| 1846 C. G. Prowett Prometh. Bound 28 The gadfly-haunted maid, whose charms have power To smite Jove's heart with love. 1893 D. Jordan (‘Son of the Marshes’) Forest Tithes, etc. 197 In gadfly time it was a fine sight to see a herd of cattle charging along. |