English Reference

Idiom

mistake windmills for giants

Meaning

To perceive ordinary, nonthreatening objects or situations as significant dangers or adversaries, often due to an overly romantic, idealistic, or deluded worldview.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples

“You often mistake windmills for giants when you worry too much.”

“He is so eager to find a conspiracy that he constantly mistakes windmills for giants in his daily life.”

“By viewing every minor administrative change as a deliberate attack on his authority, the manager frequently mistakes windmills for giants.”

Examples

simple

“You often mistake windmills for giants when you worry too much.”

contextual

“He is so eager to find a conspiracy that he constantly mistakes windmills for giants in his daily life.”

complex

“By viewing every minor administrative change as a deliberate attack on his authority, the manager frequently mistakes windmills for giants.”

Origin

Something to do with Don Quixote...

Key words

Related idioms

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English Reference