Ambition

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, n. [F. ambition, L. ambitio a going
     around, especially of candidates for office is Rome, to
     solicit votes (hence, desire for office or honor), fr. ambire
     to go around. See {Ambient}, {Issue}.]
     1. The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or
        any other object of desire; canvassing. [Obs.]


        [1913 Webster]
  
              [I] used no ambition to commend my deeds. --Milton.
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     2. An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for
        preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment
        of something.
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              Cromwell, I charge thee, fling a way ambition:
              By that sin fell the angels.          --Shak.
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              The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six
              thousand more acres.                  --Burke.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, v. t. [Cf. F. ambitionner.]
     To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece,
           bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.
                                                    --Trumbull.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ambition
       n 1: a cherished desire; "his ambition is to own his own
            business" [syn: {aspiration}, {dream}]
       2: a strong drive for success [syn: {ambitiousness}]
       v : have as one's ambition

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  105 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambition":
     aim, ambitiousness, animus, anxiety, appetite, aspiration, avidity,
     basis, calling, careerism, catch, cause, climbing, consideration,
     counsel, craving, dearest wish, desideration, desideratum, design,
     desire, determination, dream, drive, eagerness, effect, energy,
     enterprise, enthusiasm, fancy, fixed purpose, forbidden fruit,
     function, get-up-and-go, glimmering goal, go-ahead, goad, goal,
     golden vision, ground, guiding light, guiding star, hope, hunger,
     idea, ideal, incentive, initiative, inspiration, intendment,
     intent, intention, keenness, lodestar, lodestone, lofty ambition,
     magnanimity, magnet, mainspring, mark, matter, meaning, mind,
     motive, nirvana, nisus, object, objective, plan, plum, point,
     power-hunger, pretension, principle, prize, project, proposal,
     prospectus, purpose, push, reason, resolution, resolve, sake,
     score, social climbing, source, spirit, spring, spur,
     status-seeking, striving, study, target, temptation, thirst,
     trophy, ulterior motive, vaulting ambition, view, vigor, vocation,
     will, wish, zeal
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  AMBITION, n.  An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while
  living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.