tilt at windmills

【字面理解】攻击风车

【英文解析】to waste your energy attacking imaginaiy enemies

【中文解析】跟假想敌搏斗;徒费精力

【典型例句】① For some reason he think everyone is out to get him, but he’s really just tilting at windmills.不知为 什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人 自扰。

② We want to do it right. We want to do it carefully.” Obama told CNBC, ‘But we don’t want to tilt at windmills.” “我们 希望把它做好，我们希望认真去做，”奥巴马在接受 CNBC采访时说，“但我们不想徒费精力。”

【注释】源自塞万提斯(Cervantes)的小说《唐吉诃德》 (Don Quixote) 0小说中的主人公以为他看见的风车 是巨人，试图与其格斗。