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
Tall, curly-haired, arrogant, he has a penchant for big cigars, for calling himself "a stormy petrel."
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
Pierre Boulez used to be the stormy petrel of contemporary music.
From Time Magazine Archive
A fishing-schooner, if well handled, is a veritable stormy petrel in riding out a blow.
From Blow The Man Down A Romance Of The Coast - 1916 by Day, Holman
