Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Ambition"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.]
[I] used no ambition to commend my deeds. --Milton.
2. An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for
preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment
of something.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling a way ambition: By
that sin fell the angels. --Shak.
The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six
thousand more acres. --Burke.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, v. t. [Cf. F. ambitionner.]
To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]
Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece,
bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.
--Trumbull.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (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
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