Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A knight, often portrayed in medieval romances, who wanders in search of adventures to prove his chivalry.
- n. One given to adventurous or quixotic conduct.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See knight errant, under knight.
Wiktionary
- n. A knight who wandered in search of adventure and opportunities to prove his chivalry.
- n. A person who displays an adventurous or a quixotic spirit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A wandering knight; a knight who traveled in search of adventures, for the purpose of exhibiting military skill, prowess, and generosity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a wandering knight travelling in search of adventure
Examples
“English authors, too, have turned this subgenre to inspired use: Kate Atkinson's reluctant series-hero Jackson Brodie, encountered this year not only in "Started Early, Took My Dog" but also in three PBS-aired TV dramas, puts a beleaguered modern knight-errant in the context of a Whitbread-winning writer's brilliant contemporary novel.”
“With his powerful sense of justice, dogged determination and the physical and mental skills to overcome what to most would be overwhelming odds, Jack Reacher makes an irresistible modern knight-errant.”
“His is a surprisingly thin-legged erring knight-errant, admittedly heavy of paunch, but also with the aquiline nose and glinting blue eyes of a true aristocrat, if more than past his prime and short on scruples.”
“Displayed the will of a lion, yet conveyed a vulnerability generating unfamiliar knight-errant tendencies in him.”
“Six feet two, and tipping the scales at 300 pounds, he was the knight-errant of Fleet Street -- "Sir Chesterton of Overroads," as Shaw also described him -- a journalist who went about London garbed in a slouch hat and cloak, sword stick in hand.”
“Like most Irish, the pagan in him was alive and well, but he kept a pew in a medieval cathedral where the knight-errant genuflected in a cone of stained light, blood-soaked cloak or not.”
“The quixotic knight-errant, waging war on a crippled old man.”
“Five inches shorter than my big Jazz, she seems tiny, precise, a knight-errant clad not in chain mail but in feathers.”
“Meanwhile, the pasty-faced Assange, a self-appointed knight-errant who has been doing battle with official secrecy since 2006, was in the shadows somewhere - few knew where - undoubtedly savoring the ruckus caused by WikiLeaks 'exposure of confidential State Department cables.”
The Washington Post: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is in hiding, avoiding Interpol warrant
“Since the Chinese literati discovered Homer at the beginning of the twentieth century, they have keenly felt the lack of a national epic poem, their own traditional fiction of knight-errant wuxia stories being considered too episodic and prosaic.”
The Huffington Post: Jamyang Norbu: Language, Identity & Revolution in Tibet
Lists
‘knight-errant’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.