as in dreamer
one whose conduct is guided more by the image of perfection than by the real world
a latter-day Don Quixote, she's spent her life fighting the state's big logging companies
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Recent Examples of Don Quixote
Now, as Don Quixote, Losada is donning the armor that Jerry Gulledge, the actor who played the role in the Actors’ Playhouse production 30 years ago, wore.
—
Michelle F. Solomon, Miami Herald, 17 Nov. 2025
Combining the optimism of Don Quixote and Candide became the guide for my main character—an absolutely surreal, absurd optimist, who believes that even things way out of his league are possible for him.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2025
Loosely centered on the ballet Don Quixote (which is based on the 1600s Spanish novel), Act 2 speaks to kids ages 5–8 about themes of resilience, compassion and friendship—values Copeland says shaped her early years.
—Essence, 4 Nov. 2025
Writers have always been more Don Quixote than Sancho Panza.
—Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for Don Quixote
Michelle F. Solomon, Miami Herald, 17 Nov. 2025
Combining the optimism of Don Quixote and Candide became the guide for my main character—an absolutely surreal, absurd optimist, who believes that even things way out of his league are possible for him.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2025
Loosely centered on the ballet Don Quixote (which is based on the 1600s Spanish novel), Act 2 speaks to kids ages 5–8 about themes of resilience, compassion and friendship—values Copeland says shaped her early years.
—Essence, 4 Nov. 2025
Writers have always been more Don Quixote than Sancho Panza.
—Rowan Jacobsen, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for Don Quixote
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Don Quixote
Noun
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But today there’s something refreshingly unusual about electronic music so unabashedly idealistic, something that declines to submit to reality and instead goes searching for some far-off nirvana, finding connections to other dreamers on the way.—
Alex Robert Ross,
Pitchfork,
13 Feb. 2026
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Their journeys to the Olympics are more than anything immigrant stories, the odysseys of two families of dreamers who settled in the South Bay, Chloe Kim’s family in Torrance, Bea Kim’s on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.—
Scott M. Reid,
Oc Register,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Learning to separate fantasy from reality can be uncomfortable, especially for hopeless romantics.—
Jenna Ryu,
SELF,
6 Feb. 2026
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The Japan romantics may be overlooking some clear drawbacks, however, including the 30 years of economic struggles that followed the bursting of a truly epic bubble in the 1990s.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
5 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Don Quixote.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Don%20Quixote. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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