Don Quixote
12
8.0
- noun
- /dɒn kɪˈhoʊti/
- Literature
:
Don Quijote
- In Miguel de Cervantes' novel, the protagonist, Don Quixote, sets out on a quest to revive chivalry.
- Menard, author of Don Quixote
- author of Don Quixote
But a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de la Mancha.
- But a dauntless knight known as Don Quixote de la Mancha.
- Maybe see Ratmansky's Firebird, maybe see Don Quixote because it's just so vibrant and and see Isabella Boylston as key treat.
- And this all came from my spending a year reading Don Quixote and the and the way that Don Quixote read all these books of chivalry and came to believe that he was a knight.
- We're briefly gorgeous and Don Quixote for school.
- Winnie the Pooh, the Damapada, The Drama of the Gifted Child and Don Quixote.
- You know, like Homer, Joan of Arc, Jesus, Harry Potter, Mary Poppins, Don Quixote.
- Ron to Build Bar Bar Bilbo Baggins, Bag of Rice, Paella Spain, Don Quixote.
Examples
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I hope that my efforts are not in vain; that, unlike Don Quixote, I am not merely tilting at windmills.
Academic text (1990) -
"So, Bambi," murmured Don Quixote, "it's not much fun going home after the party, is it?"
Fiction book (1993) -
Now we get to Don Quixote's Return Home.
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I do what I do on principle, like Don Quixote.
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Wow, I'm impressed, you even know Don Quixote.
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Would you mind reciting the first page of the Spanish version of Don Quixote?
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Hogarth's model for his way of defining character was Don Quixote.
Academic text (1996) -
Here they are, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
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But it was only Don Quixote, sounding brusque and tired.
Fiction book (1993) -
That's the true love story from that book, the love of Sancho for Don Quixote.
Synonyms
32
9.8
A man from a novel who tries to do good but unrealistic things
A person with unrealistic ideas who tries to achieve them
Antonyms
How Idealistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a proper-name-based metaphor: the phrase refers to a literary character (or someone like that character) and its meaning ('extremely idealistic and impractical person') cannot be derived from the literal constituents 'Don' (a courtesy title) and 'Quixote' (a name). Although many languages use the literary reference, understanding the idiomatic sense requires cultural/literary knowledge rather than simple composition of the parts, so it is not transparent to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Don Quixote comes from the hero of a famous Spanish novel by Cervantes. In the story he puts on old armor and attacks windmills because he believes they are giants, a clear picture of brave but unrealistic action. So calling someone a Don Quixote means 'a person who is extremely idealistic and impractical'.