: existing only as the product of unchecked imagination : fantastically visionary (see visionaryentry 1 sense 2) or improbable
chimerical dreams of economic stability
2
: given to fantastic schemes
She's a chimerical optimist infused with utopian visions.
3
usually chimeric
a
: relating to, derived from, or being a genetic chimera: containing tissue with two or more genetically distinct populations of cells
Chimeric mice are generated by mixing cells from two embryos, generating a mouse with four parental contributions. Nancy L. Nadon
b
: composed of material (such as DNA or polypeptide) from more than one organism
He combined this gene material with safer human DNA and created what's known as a chimeric gene—a gene of antibody instructions that is part man, part mouse. Eric Hand
quixotic implies a devotion to romantic or chivalrous ideals unrestrained by ordinary prudence and common sense.
a quixotic crusade
Example Sentences
for the time being, interplanetary travel remains a chimerical feature of life in the 21st century
Recent Examples on the WebThere was a serene, domestic quality to the scene that felt as enchanted as Natasha’s picnic area: an eddy of calm, however chimerical, carved out of mayhem. Luke Mogelson, The New Yorker, 23 July 2022 Guardiola himself had acknowledged that before the game, half in jest, suggesting that there was not a vast amount of point in conducting the usual, instinctive analysis of Real Madrid because Ancelotti’s team is, by its very nature, so chimerical.New York Times, 26 Apr. 2022 In his eyes, though, speed is not where true value lies in a social media world, and particularly in that portion of it devoted to soccer’s chaotic, contradictory and often chimerical transfer market.New York Times, 24 Jan. 2022 To put it in biblical terms, the line between obeying God and playing God is as blurry as that between domesticating animals for agriculture and creating chimerical creatures in laboratories. Mark O’connell, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021 To put it in biblical terms, the line between obeying God and playing God is as blurry as that between domesticating animals for agriculture and creating chimerical creatures in laboratories. Mark O’connell, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021 To put it in biblical terms, the line between obeying God and playing God is as blurry as that between domesticating animals for agriculture and creating chimerical creatures in laboratories. Mark O’connell, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021 To put it in biblical terms, the line between obeying God and playing God is as blurry as that between domesticating animals for agriculture and creating chimerical creatures in laboratories. Mark O’connell, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021 To put it in biblical terms, the line between obeying God and playing God is as blurry as that between domesticating animals for agriculture and creating chimerical creatures in laboratories. Mark O’connell, The New York Review of Books, 22 July 2021 See More