ambition

Noun · Verb
Synonyms: aspirationdreamambitiousness

WordNet 3.0

Noun (2)

  1. a cherished desire“his ambition is to own his own business”Synonyms: aspirationdream
  2. a strong drive for successSynonyms: ambitiousness

Verb (1)

  1. have as one's ambition
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Webster's Dictionary (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.[1913 Webster]

2.An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something. [1913 Webster]

Cromwell, I charge thee, fling a way ambition: By that sin fell the angels.— Shak.[1913 Webster]
The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres.— Burke.[1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]

The Devil's Dictionary

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