Idiom
throw one's cap over the windmill
Meaning
To act in a bizarre, eccentric or immoral manner.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He threw his cap over the windmill and quit his job suddenly.”
“You throw your cap over the windmill by ignoring every rule at the office.”
“He throws his cap over the windmill whenever he acts this strangely in public.”
“After years of being sensible, she threw her cap over the windmill and moved to a remote island.”
“The quiet accountant threw his cap over the windmill when he spent his entire life savings on a vintage race car and joined a dangerous cross-country competition.”
“She decided to throw her cap over the windmill by ending her long engagement and moving to a city where she did not know a single person.”
“The professor threw his cap over the windmill by abandoning his academic career to pursue a life as a traveling circus performer.”
Examples
simple
“He threw his cap over the windmill and quit his job suddenly.”
“You throw your cap over the windmill by ignoring every rule at the office.”
“He throws his cap over the windmill whenever he acts this strangely in public.”
contextual
“After years of being sensible, she threw her cap over the windmill and moved to a remote island.”
“The quiet accountant threw his cap over the windmill when he spent his entire life savings on a vintage race car and joined a dangerous cross-country competition.”
“She decided to throw her cap over the windmill by ending her long engagement and moving to a city where she did not know a single person.”
complex
“The professor threw his cap over the windmill by abandoning his academic career to pursue a life as a traveling circus performer.”
Origin
Probably a calque of French jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins . Widely reported as deriving from a passage in the novel Don Quixote in which the titular character throws his cap over a windmill that he has mistaken for a giant, as a challenge. However, no such passage exists in the book.
Key words
Related idioms
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