quixotism
(ˈkwɪksətɪz(ə)m)
[f. as quixotic a. + -ism.]
Quixotic principles, character, or practice; an instance of this, a quixotic action or idea.
| 1688 Pulpit Popery, True Popery 36 All the Heroical Fictions of Ecclesiastical Quixotism. 1723 Briton No. 20 (1724) 86 His Publick Spirit would appear mere Quixotism to a Protestant People. 1793 Residence in France (1797) I. 166 If a momentary smile be excited by these Quixotisms. 1858 Lytton What will he do? viii. vi, In the Quixotism of atonement for your father's fault. 1898 Bodley France II. iv. ii. 345 The scorn which inopportune quixotism provokes. |
So ˈquixotize v., (a) intr., to act in a quixotic manner; (b) trans., to render quixotic.
| 1831 Examiner 226/1 The folly to think of quixotizing through all Europe. 1894 Du Maurier Trilby 99 A thing to Quixotize a modern French masher! |