7 results for: quixotic

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
quix·ot·ic    Audio Help   [kwik-sot-ik] Pronunciation Key
–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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
quixotic

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
quix·ot·ic    Audio Help   (kwĭk-sŏt'ĭk)  Pronunciation Key 
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.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
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."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
quixotic

adjective
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" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Quixotic

Quix*ot"ic\, a. Like Don Quixote; romantic to extravagance; absurdly chivalric; apt to be deluded. "Feats of quixotic gallantry." --Prescott.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Dictionary.com Word of the Day Archive - Cite This Source - Share This

quixotic

quixotic was Word of the Day on September 20, 2001.

Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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