AMBITION • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • 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

... sense of the word. My hope flies ever in front of my best success, and that momentary success does not deceive me in the very least. I know exactly how much, or rather how little, I am worth; that I lack the imagination, the industry, the training, the ambition, to achieve any lasting results. I have the artistic temperament in so far that it is impossible for me to work merely for money or popularity, or indeed for anything less than the desire to express the best that is in me without fear or favour. ...

— Penelope's English Experiences • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... ambition was to become the owner of a fishing-boat, when he could live at home and be his own master. He was fonder of fishing than anything else, and when he could not get out to sea he passed much of his time with his rod and lines on the banks of the ...

— Dick Cheveley - His Adventures and Misadventures • W. H. G. Kingston

... lost the election; for cotton was very high, and Alexander urged that it was in consequence of the Tariff. Two years passed away, which Crockett spent in the wildest adventures of hunting. He was a true man of the woods with no ambition for any better home than the log cabin he occupied. There was no excitement so dear to him as the pursuit and capture of a grizzly bear. There is nothing on record, in the way of hunting, which surpasses the exploits of this renowned bear-hunter. But there is a certain degree of sameness ...

— David Crockett: His Life and Adventures • John S. C. Abbott

... humble and modest was the ambition that it quite took Boswell by surprise. Priscilla did not notice the uplifting of the shaggy brows. She went ...

— The Place Beyond the Winds • Harriet T. Comstock

... He was a chap who thought very well indeed of himself and his accomplishments, and held a somewhat slighting estimation of others. In connection with baseball, he had always entertained an overweening ambition to become a pitcher, although little qualified for such a position, either by temperament or acquired skill. True, he could throw the curves, and had some speed, but at his best he could not find the plate more than once out of six times, and, when disturbed or rattled, ...

— Rival Pitchers of Oakdale • Morgan Scott

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