gadfly vs pester

gadfly

noun
  • A person or thing that irritates or instigates. 

  • Synonym of gadabout (“a person who restlessly moves from place to place, seeking amusement or the companionship of others”) 

  • 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. 

  • A person who takes without giving back; a bloodsucker. 

  • A person who upsets the status quo by posing novel or upsetting questions, or attempts to stimulate innovation by being an irritant. 

pester

noun
  • A bother or nuisance. 

verb
  • To bother, harass, or annoy persistently. 

How often have the words gadfly and pester occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )