tilting at windmills
Fighting imaginary enemies
Tilting at windmills is attacking imaginary enemies or fighting battles that can't be won.
The phrase comes from Don Quixote, whose delusional knight-errant charged at windmills he mistook for giants.
It suggests wasted effort against non-threats or hopeless causes: Critics say the senator is tilting at windmills with his doomed legislation.
Delusional self-proclaimed knight-errant
- knight-errantMedieval adventure-seeking warrior
- chivalrousHonorably courteous and brave
- romanticConducive to love
- idealisticPursuing unrealistic standards
Cervantes · dreamer · visionary · quest · crusade · noble · heroic · valiant
Beyond possibility of success
- pointlessLacking any purpose
- fruitlessProducing no useful outcome
- vainExcessively proud or futile
- ineffectualFailing to achieve purpose
unproductive · unavailing · useless · unsuccessful · abortive · Sisyphean · fool's errand · wild goose chase
Holding false beliefs firmly
- mistakenIncorrectly understood or believed
- misperceptionIncorrect interpretation of reality
- illusoryFalsely appearing to exist
- naiveInnocently unsuspecting
misdirected · unrealistic · impractical · foolhardy · misjudgment · overzealous · errant · shadow boxing
Don Quixote
Delusional self-proclaimed knight-errant
- knight-errantMedieval adventure-seeking warrior
- chivalrousHonorably courteous and brave
- romanticConducive to love
Cervantes · idealistic · dreamer · visionary · quest · crusade · noble · heroic · valiant · gallant
hopeless
Beyond possibility of success
ineffectual · unproductive · unavailing · useless · unsuccessful · abortive · Sisyphean · fool's errand · wild goose chase · lost cause
delusional
Holding false beliefs firmly
- mistakenIncorrectly understood or believed
- misperceptionIncorrect interpretation of reality
- illusoryFalsely appearing to exist
naive · misdirected · unrealistic · impractical · foolhardy · misjudgment · overzealous · errant · shadow boxing
- AllusionsAchilles heel, Pandora's box, Trojan horse, forbidden fruit, Midas touch
- CervantesDon Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes, Sancho Panza, Cervantes, Rocinante
- Don QuixoteDon Quixote, Sancho Panza, Rocinante, La Mancha, windmills
- Futile taskswild goose chase, fool's errand, herding cats, beating dead horse, chasing rainbows
- Historical AllusionsTrojan horse, Achilles heel, Pyrrhic victory, crossing the Rubicon, Pandora's box
- literary idiomscatch-22, red herring, white whale, chapter and verse, by the book
tilting at windmillspicking one's battles
Selecting which disputes matter
realpolitik · strategic thinking · cutting one's losses · keeping one's eye on the ball
tilting at windmillsgetting results
hitting the mark · moving the needle · making headway · surgical strike
tilting at windmillsfacing facts
Acknowledging uncomfortable truths
level-headedness · seeing the forest for the trees · keeping it real · calling a spade a spade