[f. as prec. + -ISM.] Quixotic principles, character or practice; an instance of this, a quixotic action or idea.
1688. [Bp. Williams], Pulpit Popery, True Popery, 36. All the Heroical Fictions of Ecclesiastical Quixotism.
1723. Briton, No. 20 (1724), 86. His Publick Spirit would appear mere Quixotism to a Protestant People.
1793. Residence in France (1797), I. 164. If a momentary smile be excited by these Quixotisms, it is checked by horror at their consequences!
1858. Lytton, What will He do? VIII. vi. In the Quixotism of atonement for your father’s fault.
1898. J. E. C. Bodley, France, II. IV. ii. 345. The scorn which inopportune quixotism provokes.
So Quixotize v. a. intr., to act in a quixotic manner; b. trans., to render quixotic.
1831. Examiner, 10 April, 226/1. The folly to think of quixotizing through all Europe.
1894. Du Maurier, Trilby, 99. A thing to Quixotize a modern French masher!
