quixotic

adjective

quix·ot·ic kwik-ˈsä-tik

Synonyms of quixotic next

: foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals

especially : marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action

: capricious, unpredictable

quixotical

kwik-ˈsä-ti-kəl

adjective

quixotically

kwik-ˈsä-ti-k(ə-)lē

adverb

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Quixotic Has Roots in Literature

If you guessed that quixotic has something to do with Don Quixote, you're absolutely right. The hero of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century Spanish novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (in English "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha") didn't change the world by tilting at windmills, but he did leave a linguistic legacy in English. The adjective quixotic is based on his name and has been used to describe unrealistic idealists since at least the early 18th century. The novel has given English other words as well. Dulcinea, the name of Quixote's beloved, has come to mean "mistress" or "sweetheart," and rosinante, which is sometimes used to refer to an old, broken-down horse, comes from the name of the hero's less-than-gallant steed, Rocinante.

Choose the Right Synonym for quixotic

imaginary, fanciful, visionary, fantastic, chimerical, quixotic mean unreal or unbelievable.

imaginary applies to something which is fictitious and purely the product of one's imagination.

an imaginary desert isle

fanciful suggests the free play of the imagination.

a teller of fanciful stories

visionary stresses impracticality or incapability of realization.

visionary schemes

fantastic implies incredibility or strangeness beyond belief.

a fantastic world inhabited by monsters

chimerical combines the implication of visionary and fantastic.

chimerical dreams of future progress

quixotic implies a devotion to romantic or chivalrous ideals unrestrained by ordinary prudence and common sense.

a quixotic crusade

Examples of quixotic in a Sentence

In … an earnest book-length essay of neo-Victorian public-mindedness that deplores the "nasty, knowing abuse" that the author would have us fear contaminates too much American humor lately, David Denby, a movie critic for The New Yorker, sets for himself what has to be one of the most quixotic projects that a moral reformer can undertake. —

Walter Kirn, New York Times Book Review, 22 Feb. 2009

The history of biblical oil prospecting is filled with quixotic quests and colorful characters, starting with Welsie Hancock, a wealthy California man who in the 1960s dreamed that Jesus told him he would find black gold in the Holy Land. He sunk his entire fortune into two dry holes. —

Mariah Blake, Mother Jones, January and February 2008

Mumey had announced his candidacy as an independent in the partisan election, which meant that he needed 2,300 signatures of registered voters in order to get on the ballot in the fall. It seemed a quixotic adventure, given the small size of Celebration and Mumey's lack of name recognition outside the town. —

Douglas Frantz et al., Celebration, USA, 1999

They had quixotic dreams about the future. in this age of giant chain stores, any attempt at operating an independent bookstore must be regarded as quixotic

Recent Examples on the Web No word better sums up our quixotic hopes for the visual, uniting the lowbrow (video-game headsets, van Gogh warehouses), the highbrow (Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms, James Turrell’s light installations), and the middlebrow (Alfonso Cuarón’s Steadicam jaunts, James Cameron’s 3-D extravaganzas). —

Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Based on the realities of the primary calendar, a campaign beginning this late seems borderline quixotic. —

Geoffrey Skelley, ABC News, 31 Oct. 2023 The 69-year-old environmental lawyer and antivaccine activist is waging a quixotic challenge to President Biden for the Democratic nomination. —

Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 17 July 2023 The disaffection among conservatives has spawned a movement to change the state’s political dynamic in a novel if quixotic way - rather than relocate or change the politics, which seems impossible to many here, why not move the border and become residents who live under the rules of Idaho? —

Scott Wilson, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Sep. 2023 The disaffection among conservatives has spawned a movement to change the state’s political dynamic in a novel if quixotic way — rather than relocate or change the politics, which seems impossible to many here, why not move the border and become residents who live under the rules of Idaho? —

Scott Wilson, Washington Post, 15 Sep. 2023 In recent memory, one of the most quixotic political issues to hit the Beehive State revolves around changing Utah’s flag. —

Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 31 Aug. 2023 The quarterback quest is quixotic, a method of madness that defies invariables. —

Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Aug. 2023 Some thought his record-setting quest was quixotic. —

Hayes Gardner, Baltimore Sun, 18 Aug. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'quixotic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.