AMBITION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ambition

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/æmbˈɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Ambition n.

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."

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." "The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres."

verb

Ambition v. t. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. (R.) "Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage."

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Etymology of 'Ambition'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ambition" Quotes from Famous Books

... Herbert Hoover's college life reveals no startling features to distinguish it from the college careers of other thousands of boys, endowed with intelligence, energy, and ambition, but not with money, and hence forced to earn their living as they went along. Nevertheless it does reveal many of the main characteristics that we know so well today. For he did things all through those four ...

— Herbert Hoover - The Man and His Work • Vernon Kellogg

... illegally, he refused even now to take flight, and in his consular robes awaited at the Janiculum the assassin, who was not slow to appear. Among the slain were Lucius Caesar (consul in 664) the celebrated victor of Acerrae;(4) his brother Gaius, whose unseasonable ambition had provoked the Sulpician tumult,(5) well known as an orator and poet and as an amiable companion; Marcus Antonius (consul in 655), after the death of Lucius Crassus beyond dispute the first pleader of his time; Publius Crassus (consul in 657) who had commanded ...

— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... short, it will not be soon forgotten; it has made a lasting impression on the minds of all such as have had opportunity to observe, and justly to appreciate, your vigilant and unwearied attention to the duties of your station, and your constant ambition, by every means in your power, to promote and secure the prosperity of the colony committed to your care. His Majesty's Council therefore request your acceptance of this address, not as a mere compliment, but as ...

— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez. Vol II • Sir John Ross

... prison or fortress, where he will drag out his days and nights in solitude until he goes mad: a young, bright, promising life ruined, just because he happens to stand in the way of some unscrupulous ambition, or ...

— The Mummy and Miss Nitocris - A Phantasy of the Fourth Dimension • George Griffith

... word, you have treated me magnificently. When the chance came, so unexpectedly, of taking over Garnet's share and place in the expedition, and when my Uncle Christopher flatly refused to advance the money, I felt hopelessly knocked out, for such a trip had been the ambition of my life. Why, I had studied for it, on the off-chance, for years! I didn't go into a geographical publisher's business just to deal in maps, you know. And then you both came to the rescue—why I can't think, unless it was just because ...

— Till the Clock Stops • John Joy Bell

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