knight-errant

[ nahyt-er-uhnt ]

noun

, plural knights-er·rant.

1. a wandering knight; a knight who traveled widely in search of adventures, to exhibit military skill, to engage in chivalric deeds, etc.

knight errant

noun

1. (esp in medieval romance) a knight who wanders in search of deeds of courage, chivalry, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of knight-errant¹

Middle English word dating back to 1300–50

Example Sentences

The 16th-century novelist Miguel de Cervantes framed his fictional story of the knight-errant Don Quixote as the translation of a recovered Arabic manuscript.

From New York Times

Nonetheless, he is regarded by some in the astronomy community as a knight-errant, tilting at windmills.

From Scientific American

One man came as a patriotic duck; another as a bald eagle; another as a cross between a knight-errant and Captain America; another as Abraham Lincoln.

From Seattle Times

In Cervantes’s classic novel, a student tells the knight-errant Don Quixote, “The greater the fame of the writer, the more closely his books are scrutinized.”

From Washington Post

The Aug. 16 Style article “A knight-errant looking to right the ways of the wind” illuminated the president’s views — at best, those of a Luddite — on the status of wind generation worldwide.

From Washington Post