| 释义 |
quixotic, a. (n.)|kwɪkˈsɒtɪk|
[f. Quixote n.]
1. Of persons: Resembling Don Quixote; hence, striving with lofty enthusiasm for visionary ideals.
1815J. Adams Wks. (1856) X. 157, I considered Miranda as a vagrant, a vagabond, a Quixotic adventurer. 1857Hughes Tom Brown i. i, This family training..makes them eminently quixotic. 1896Spectator 7 Mar. 336 Any one can exceed, but few can be really Quixotic.
2. Of actions, undertakings, etc.: Characteristic of, appropriate to, Don Quixote.
1851Gallenga Italy 131 A daring that would seem almost quixotic. 1874Green Short Hist. x. 719 A quixotic mission to the Indians of Georgia. 1876Emerson Ess. Ser. ii. vii. 175 All public ends look vague and quixotic beside private ones.
b. pl. as n. Quixotic sentiments.
1896Spectator 7 Mar. 337 If..our Quixotics seem foolish or extravagant.
Hence quiˈxotical a.; quiˈxotically adv.; quiˈxoticism = quixotism.
1850Fraser's Mag. XLII. 482 No Quixotical redresser of wrong. 1862Sat. Rev. XIII. 660/2 A mathematician who..Quixotically endeavoured to cure him. 1882Athenæum 23 Sept. 410/1 The symbol of his noble quixoticism. |