Usually means: Person who provokes others intellectually.
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We found 31 dictionaries that define the word gadfly:

General (23 matching dictionaries)
  1. gadfly: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. gadfly: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. gadfly: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. gadfly: Collins English Dictionary
  5. gadfly: Vocabulary.com
  6. Gadfly, gadfly: Wordnik
  7. gadfly: Wiktionary
  8. gadfly: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  9. gadfly: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  10. gadfly: Infoplease Dictionary
  11. gadfly: Dictionary.com
  12. gadfly (n.): Online Etymology Dictionary
  13. Gadfly (database), Gadfly (disambiguation), Gadfly (mythology), Gadfly (philosophy and social science), Gadfly (social), Gadfly, The Gadfly (play), The Gadfly: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  14. Gadfly: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  15. gadfly: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  16. gadfly: Rhymezone
  17. Gadfly: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  18. gadfly: Webster's 1828 Dictionary
  19. gadfly: Free Dictionary
  20. gadfly: Mnemonic Dictionary
  21. gadfly: Dictionary/thesaurus

Business (4 matching dictionaries)
  1. MoneyGlossary.com (No longer online)
  2. Gadfly: Bloomberg Financial Glossary
  3. Gadfly: Investopedia
  4. Gadfly: Financial dictionary

Computing (1 matching dictionary)
  1. gadfly: Encyclopedia

Medicine (1 matching dictionary)
  1. online medical dictionary (No longer online)

Miscellaneous (1 matching dictionary)
  1. gadfly: A Word A Day

Slang (1 matching dictionary)
  1. gadfly: Urban Dictionary

(Note: See gadflies as well.)

Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
noun:  Any dipterous (“two-winged”) insect or fly of the family Oestridae (commonly known as a botfly) or Tabanidae (horsefly), noted for irritating animals by buzzing about them, and biting them to suck their blood; a gadbee.
noun:  (figurative, also attributive)
noun:  A person or thing that irritates or instigates.
noun:  (specifically) A person who upsets the status quo by posing novel or upsetting questions, or attempts to stimulate innovation by being an irritant.
noun:  Synonym of gadabout (“a person who restlessly moves from place to place, seeking amusement or the companionship of others”)
noun:  (derogatory, slang) A person who takes without giving back; a bloodsucker.

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