quixotic, a. (n.)
(kwɪkˈsɒtɪk)
[f. Quixote n.]
1. Of persons: Resembling Don Quixote; hence, striving with lofty enthusiasm for visionary ideals.
| 1815 J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 157, I considered Miranda as a vagrant, a vagabond, a Quixotic adventurer. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, This family training..makes them eminently quixotic. 1896 Spectator 7 Mar. 336 Any one can exceed, but few can be really Quixotic. |
2. Of actions, undertakings, etc.: Characteristic of, appropriate to, Don Quixote.
| 1851 Gallenga Italy 131 A daring that would seem almost quixotic. 1874 Green Short Hist. x. 719 A quixotic mission to the Indians of Georgia. 1876 Emerson Ess. Ser. ii. vii. 175 All public ends look vague and quixotic beside private ones. |
b. pl. as n. Quixotic sentiments.
| 1896 Spectator 7 Mar. 337 If..our Quixotics seem foolish or extravagant. |
Hence quiˈxotical a.; quiˈxotically adv.; quiˈxoticism = quixotism.
| 1850 Fraser's Mag. XLII. 482 No Quixotical redresser of wrong. 1862 Sat. Rev. XIII. 660/2 A mathematician who..Quixotically endeavoured to cure him. 1882 Athenæum 23 Sept. 410/1 The symbol of his noble quixoticism. |