knight-errant

• knight errant
• knight-erratic

knight-errant (plural knights-errant)

1. A knight in a medieval romance who wanders in search of adventure and opportunities to prove his chivalry.
   • 1885, John Ormsby, chapter 1, in Don Quixote, volume 1, translation of original by Miguel de Cervantes:

     In short, his wits being quite gone, [Don Quixote] hit upon the strangest notion that ever madman in this world hit upon, and that was that he fancied it was right and requisite, as well for the support of his own honour as for the service of his country, that he should make a knight-errant of himself, roaming the world over in full armour and on horseback in quest of adventures, and putting in practice himself all that he had read of as being the usual practices of knights-errant; righting every kind of wrong, and exposing himself to peril and danger from which, in the issue, he was to reap eternal renown and fame.

2. A person who displays an adventurous or a quixotic spirit.
   • 1834, L E L, chapter XLI, in Francesca Carrara. , volume III, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 341:

     "Welcome, my young knight-errant!" exclaimed Madame de Soissons. "I am expecting you to do wonders." "Nothing could be wonderful when performed in your service," replied the boy, with that readiness of compliment so characteristic of his time and court.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I, page 194:

     It had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled - the great knights-errant of the sea.

• knight-errantry