DON QUIXOTE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

• DON QUIXOTE (noun)
  The noun DON QUIXOTE has 2 senses:

1. the hero of a romance by Cervantes; chivalrous but impractical

2. any impractical idealist (after Cervantes' hero)

  Familiarity information: DON QUIXOTE used as a noun is rare.

• DON QUIXOTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The hero of a romance by Cervantes; chivalrous but impractical

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

character; fictional character; fictitious character (an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any impractical idealist (after Cervantes' hero)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Don Quixote" is a kind of...):

dreamer; idealist (someone guided more by ideals than by practical considerations)

 Context examples 

Something there was of Napoleon III., something of Don Quixote, and yet again something which was the essence of the English country gentleman, the keen, alert, open-air lover of dogs and of horses.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From that blessed little room, Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker, Tom Jones, the Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quixote, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe, came out, a glorious host, to keep me company.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As danger thickened his jaunty manner would increase, his speech become more racy, his cold eyes glitter into ardent life, and his Don Quixote moustache bristle with joyous excitement.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)