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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

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

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, 58, hawk-nosed, "gimlet-eyed" stormy petrel of the U. S. Marine Corps; of an abdominal ailment; in Philadelphia.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now when skies were overcast and the wind had a tooth, Bel figured in the picture as a sort of stormy petrel, forever to be seen wheeling somewhere within the vague of the horizon.

From Linda Lee, Incorporated A Novel by Vance, Louis Joseph