Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a person who cherishes or pursues high or noble principles, purposes, goals, etc.
- a visionary or impractical person.
- a person who represents things as they might or should be rather than as they are: My friend is an idealist, who somehow thinks that we always agree.
- a writer or artist who treats subjects imaginatively.
- a person who accepts the doctrines of philosophical idealism, as by representing things in an ideal form, or as they might or should be rather than as they are.
adjective
- of or relating to idealism or idealists; idealistic.
“one who represents things in an ideal form,” 1829, from ideal + -ist. Earlier (1796) in a philosophical sense “one who believes reality consists only in (Platonic) ideals.”
It seems even incredible, that any Idealist in any age could forget himself so far as to run his head against a post, merely because he found in his system, that no external world does exist, and that therefore nothing could be without to hurt him. [F.A. Nitsch, “A General and Introductory View of Professor Kant’s Principles,” 1796]
Earlier still, “one who holds doctrines of philosophical idealism” (1701).