Brewer's: Don Quixote

(2 syl.). A gaunt country gentleman of La Mancha, gentle and dignified, affectionate and simple-minded, but so crazed by reading books of knight-errantry that he believes himself called upon to redress the wrongs of the whole world, and actually goes forth to avenge the oppressed and run a tilt with their oppressors. The word Quixote means The cuish-armed. (See Quixotic.)

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