tilt at windmills

Variant of windmill

windmill definition

wind·mill (wind′mil′)

noun

  1. a mill operated by the wind's rotation of large, oblique sails or vanes radiating from a shaft: used as a source of power for grinding grain, pumping water, generating electricity, etc.
  2. anything like a windmill, as a propellerlike toy (pinwheel) revolved by wind

transitive verb, intransitive verb

to rotate like a windmill
windmill Idioms

fight windmills

or tilt at windmills
to fight imaginary evils or opponents: from Don Quixote's charging at windmills under the delusion that they were giants

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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