"throw one's cap over the windmill" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Probably a calque of French jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins .\nWidely 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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "throws one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "throwing one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "threw one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thrown one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,threw,thrown>"
      },
      "expansion": "throw one's cap over the windmill (third-person singular simple present throws one's cap over the windmill, present participle throwing one's cap over the windmill, simple past threw one's cap over the windmill, past participle thrown one's cap over the windmill)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "cap over the windmill"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              53,
              84
            ],
            [
              137,
              164
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1892, Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, Act III:",
          "text": "Awfully commercial, women nowadays. Our grandmothers threw their caps over the mills, of course, but, by Jove, their granddaughters only throw their caps over mills that can raise the wind for them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              103,
              137
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1914, E. A. Brayley Hodgetts, The Life of Catherine the Great of Russia:",
          "text": "Even Catherine’s own mother scandalized her daughter by succumbing to the contagion of the place, and “throwing her cap over the windmill,” as the French have it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              29,
              64
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1934, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors:",
          "text": "Besides, Suzanne had already thrown her bonnet over the windmill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in a bizarre, eccentric or immoral manner."
      ],
      "id": "en-throw_one's_cap_over_the_windmill-en-verb-8MckHQcE",
      "links": [
        [
          "bizarre",
          "bizarre"
        ],
        [
          "eccentric",
          "eccentric"
        ],
        [
          "immoral",
          "immoral"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated) To act in a bizarre, eccentric or immoral manner."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "tilt at windmills"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "throw one's hat over the windmill"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-throw one's cap over the windmill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "throw one's cap over the windmill"
}

{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "cap over the windmill"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Probably a calque of French jeter son bonnet par-dessus les moulins .\nWidely 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.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "throws one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "throwing one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "threw one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "thrown one's cap over the windmill",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,threw,thrown>"
      },
      "expansion": "throw one's cap over the windmill (third-person singular simple present throws one's cap over the windmill, present participle throwing one's cap over the windmill, simple past threw one's cap over the windmill, past participle thrown one's cap over the windmill)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "tilt at windmills"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              53,
              84
            ],
            [
              137,
              164
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1892, Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, Act III:",
          "text": "Awfully commercial, women nowadays. Our grandmothers threw their caps over the mills, of course, but, by Jove, their granddaughters only throw their caps over mills that can raise the wind for them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              103,
              137
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1914, E. A. Brayley Hodgetts, The Life of Catherine the Great of Russia:",
          "text": "Even Catherine’s own mother scandalized her daughter by succumbing to the contagion of the place, and “throwing her cap over the windmill,” as the French have it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              29,
              64
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1934, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors:",
          "text": "Besides, Suzanne had already thrown her bonnet over the windmill.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in a bizarre, eccentric or immoral manner."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bizarre",
          "bizarre"
        ],
        [
          "eccentric",
          "eccentric"
        ],
        [
          "immoral",
          "immoral"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated) To act in a bizarre, eccentric or immoral manner."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "throw one's hat over the windmill"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-throw one's cap over the windmill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-throw_one%27s_cap_over_the_windmill.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "throw one's cap over the windmill"
}