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quixotic - 4 dictionary results

quix⋅ot⋅ic

[kwik-sot-ik]
–adjective
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) resembling or befitting Don Quixote.
2. extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary, impractical, or impracticable.
3. impulsive and often rashly unpredictable.
Also, quix⋅ot⋅i⋅cal.


Origin:
1805–15; ( Don ) Quixote + -ic


quix⋅ot⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb


2. fanciful, fantastic, imaginary.


2. realistic, practical.
quix·ot·ic   (kwĭk-sŏt'ĭk)   
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.

Quixotic

Quix*ot"ic\, a. Like Don Quixote; romantic to extravagance; absurdly chivalric; apt to be deluded. "Feats of quixotic gallantry." --Prescott.

quixotic 
"extravagantly chivalrous," 1791, from Don Quixote, romantic, impractical hero of Cervantes' satirical novel "Don Quixote de la Mancha" (1605). His name lit. means "thigh," also "a cuisse" (a piece of armor for the thigh), in Mod.Sp. quijote, from L. coxa "hip."
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