Definition of "ambition"

ambition

/æmˈbɪʃ.ən/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural ambitions
1. (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
  Quotations
  The third part of practice hath divers branches, but one principal root in these our times, which is the vast and overspreading ambition and usurpation of the see of Rome; […]
  a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, chapter VII, in James Spedding, editor, The Works of Francis Bacon, […]: The Letters and the Life of Francis Bacon […], volume IV, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, published 1858, page 270
  One is aſtoniſhed hovv ſuch a ſmall ſpot could furniſh Men ſufficient to ſacrifice to the pitiful Ambition of poſſeſſing five or ſix thouſand more Acres, or tvvo or three more Villages: […]
  1756, [Edmund Burke], A Vindication of Natural Society: Or, A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind from Every Species of Artificial Society. […], London: […] M. Cooper […], page 20
2. (countable) An object of an ardent desire.
3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
4. (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
5. (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
  Quotations
  I on th' other ſide / Us'd no ambition to commend my deeds, […]
  1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], page 22
verb
third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned
1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
  Quotations
  Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.
  1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus

Definition of "ambition"

ambition

noun

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations