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quixotic

   Also found in: Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.43 sec.
quix·ot·ic  (kwk-stk) also quix·ot·i·cal (--kl)
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·oti·cal·ly adv.
quixo·tism (kwks-tzm) n.
quixotic [kwik-sot-ik]
Adjective
unrealistically optimistic or chivalrous [after Don Quixote in Cervantes' romance]
quixotically adv
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.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


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
An author who had much to do with preparing me for the quixotic folly in point was that Thomas Babington Macaulay, who taught simplicity of diction in phrases of as "learned length and thundering sound," as any he would have had me shun, and who deplored the Latinistic English of Johnson in terms emulous of the great doctor's orotundity and ronderosity.
My Literary Passions by Howells,William Dean View in context
Well, my quixotic one, you shall tell me anything--say, as soon as we are settled in our lodging; not now.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman by Hardy, Thomas View in context
She is ready prey to any man who knows how to play adroitly either on her affectionate ardor or her Quixotic enthusiasm; and a man stands by with that very intention in his mind--a man with no other principle than transient caprice, and who has a personal animosity towards me-- I am sure of it--an animosity which is fed by the consciousness of his ingratitude, and which he has constantly vented in ridicule of which I am as well assured as if I had heard it.
Middlemarch by Eliot, George View in context
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