quixotic

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quix·ot·ic

(kwĭk-sŏt′ĭk) also quix·ot·i·cal (-ĭ-kəl)

adj.

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.

2. Capricious; impulsive: "At worst his scruples must have been quixotic, not malicious" (Louis Auchincloss).

[From English Quixote, a visionary, after Don Quixote, , hero of a romance by Miguel de Cervantes.]

quix·ot′i·cal·ly adv.

quix′o·tism (kwĭk′sə-tĭz′əm) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

quixotic

(kwɪkˈsɒtɪk) or

quixotical

adj

preoccupied with an unrealistically optimistic or chivalrous approach to life; impractically idealistic

[C18: after Don Quixote]

quixˈotically adv

quixotism n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

quix•ot•ic

(kwɪkˈsɒt ɪk)

also quix•ot′i•cal,

adj.

1. (sometimes cap.) resembling or befitting Don Quixote.

2. extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary; impractical.

[1805–15]

quix•ot′i•cal•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

quixotic - not sensible about practical matters; idealistic and unrealistic; "as quixotic as a restoration of medieval knighthood"; "a romantic disregard for money"; "a wild-eyed dream of a world state"

wild-eyed, romantic

impractical - not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters; "refloating the ship proved impractical because of the expense"; "he is intelligent but too impractical for commercial work"; "an impractical solution"

quixotic

adjective unrealistic, idealistic, romantic, absurd, imaginary, visionary, fanciful, impractical, dreamy, Utopian, impulsive, fantastical, impracticable, chivalrous, unworldly, chimerical He lived his life by a quixotic code of honour.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

quixotic

adjective

Not compatible with reality:

idealistic, romantic, starry-eyed, unrealistic, utopian, visionary.

Translations

don quichottismedonquichottisme

donchisciottesco idealista

quixotic

[kwɪkˈsɒtɪk] ADJ → quijotesco

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

quixotic

[kwɪkˈsɒtɪk] adj → chimérique

quixotic

adj behaviour, gesture etc → edelmütig, ritterlich; ideals → schwärmerisch, idealistisch; a foolish quixotic act → eine Donquichotterie; don’t you find that a little quixotic? → finden Sie das nicht etwas versponnen?

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

quixotic

[kwɪkˈsɒtɪk] adj (frm) → donchisciottesco/a

References in classic literature ?

Shelby, "but I think you had better think before you undertake such a piece of Quixotism."

View in context

For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman, as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off the city of Nankin, we had first of all the honour to ride with the master of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty.

View in context

I wrung my hands over this absurd piece of Quixotism; but if he was determined on this deed, of course I could not stop him.

View in context

But by making Herzog contradict himself so quickly, Bellow implies that the choice to imitate models, carry forward tradition, and follow in one's father's footsteps, on the one hand, or to deliberately try to break with the past and be 'original,' a true individualist, on the other, is only a choice between quixotisms.

As we have seen, he remains trapped between these quixotisms, unable to advance or retreat.

In all three of these works, moreover, we will see quixotism linked in a complex, paradoxical way with violence, particularly--though not exclusively--violence that is anti-Semitic in nature.

Quixote Gumbo

Michael Wood playfully speculates on Cervantes's reactions upon reading Borges and Nabokov, and, in the most original essay in the volume, Nicholas Round sets forth a 'Notes towards a Typology of Quixotisms'.

Cervantes and the Modernists: The Question of Influence

"Toward a Typology of Quixotisms" Cervantes and the Modernists: The Question of Influence.

Part of the richness of both novels resides in the fact that the putative "normal" world surrounding the deranged protagonists pulsates with its own low-grade quixotism: Lolita's imagination is captured by movies and advertisements, Charlotte Haze's by cheap paper-backs and magazines, the headmistress Pratt of Beardsley by the psychobabble of "progressive schooling" (177).