quixotic

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“
"Mr. Bass is a little quixotic -- that is a charitable way to put it -- quixotic.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.
  2. adjective Capricious; impulsive: "At worst his scruples must have been quixotic, not malicious” (Louis Auchincloss).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The situation was impossible, quixotic, and ridiculous. —  Look to the Lady (The Gyrth Chalice Mystery) - Margery Allingham - Campion 03
  • These two endeavors were greeted by many as a quixotic quest, or, worse, a trivial distraction. —  AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed
  • As I've often commented, Livni is confused, quixotic, and dangerous. —  Israpundit
  • For those of you who put your "good conscience" ahead of my freedom, I put the following to you in all fairness and contempt for your quixotic notion of my perpetual enslavement to the tyranny of democracy: Do you want to elect a president, or do you want to f--- around? —  FreeMarketNews.com - World News/Editorials and Analysis
  • Depending on whom you ask, Aaron Million's idea is either the solution to Colorado's water problems or a quixotic scheme with no anchor in reality. —  Gazette.com :
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From English Quixote, a visionary, after Don Quixote, hero of a romance by Miguel de Cervantes.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Quixote (see def.) + -ic.
 

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/kwɪkˈsɑtɪk/
by Parker Smith
by American Heritage
by Patrick Kennedy
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