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.]
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[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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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, v. t. [Cf. F. ambitionner.]
To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]
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Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece,
bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.
--Trumbull.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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
WordNet (r) 2.0
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
AMBITION, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while
living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
ambitiousness, aspiration, dream
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