Tilting at windmills Tilting at windmills Tilting at windmills is an English idiom that means attacking imaginary enemies. The expression is derived from the 1605 novel "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, and the word "tilt" in this context comes from jousting. The phrase is sometimes used to describe either confrontations where adversaries are incorrectly perceived, or courses of action that are based on misinterpreted or misapplied heroic, romantic, or idealistic justifications. It may also connote an importune, unfounded, and vain effort against adversaries real or imagined for a vain goal. The phrase comes from an episode in the Cervantes novel wherein protagonist
Windmills in the Isle of Man the 1870s. The tower was diameter at the base and high The six storey tower was reduced to a two storey base in the 1960s and the mill is now a house conversion. Windmills in the Isle of Man The Isle of Man has had a number of windmills over the centuries. They were mostly threshing mills, with a few corn mills. NX 398 012 This small mill at Andreas was a threshing mill built c.1870. It was derelict in 1952. In 2007, it was proposed to add the mill to the Isle of Man's Protected Buildings Register. A skeletal