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
Joseph Windmills completed his apprenticeship, subsequently working as a journeyman, and free of the Clockmakers' Company in about 1695. Thomas also served as Master of the Company, in 1718. The partnership J & T Windmills also took over Thomas Tompion's clock maintenance contract at the Tower of London and at Woolwich and other Crown contracts. Windmills was regarded as one of the finest clockmakers in seventeenth century London, producing a large number of lantern clocks, bracket clocks, longcase clocks and pocket watches. His earliest watch, displayed in the British Museum, was made before 1680 and did not make use of a balance