Definition of "aspire"

There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, / That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, / More pangs and fears than wars or women have:

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]

Aspiring to be Gods, if Angels fell, / Aspiring to be Angels, Men rebell:

1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle 1, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], page 14, lines 131-132

This match, to which you have the presumption to aspire, can never take place.

1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], page 246

We were maids and farmers, handymen and washerwomen, and anything higher that we aspired to was farcical and presumptuous.

1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 23, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings‎, New York: Random House, pages 177–178

His own desire repulsed him. Though if he could not aspire to purity, then he was sufficiently aware of what his mother and certain others might think, not to give in to baseness.

2014, Damon Galgut, chapter 2, in Arctic Summer,‎, London: Atlantic Books, page 48

Thus ſhall my heart be ſtil combinde with thine, / Untill our bodies turne to Elements: / And both our ſoules aſpire celeſtiall thrones.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)

Mercutio’s dead! / That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds,

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]

rockes so high / That birds could scarce aspire their ridgy toppes

c. 1608, George Chapman, The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron‎, London: Thomas Thorppe, Act I, Scene 1

She’s vitious; and your partiall selves confesse, / aspires the height of all impietie:

c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, Act IV, scene iv

In midst of which a sumptuous Temple stands, / That threats the starres with her aspiring toppe.

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604; republished as Hermann Breymann, editor, Doctor Faustus (Englische Sprach- und Literaturdenkmale des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts; 5; Marlowes Werke: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe […]; II), Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg: Verlag von Gebr[üder] Henninger, 1889, scene VIII

As they descended, they saw […] one of the grand passes of the Pyreneáes into Spain, gleaming with its battlements and towers to the splendour of the setting rays, yellow tops of woods colouring the steeps below, while far above aspired the snowy points of the mountains, still reflecting a rosy hue.

1794, Ann Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Mysteries of Udolpho‎, volume 1, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 116

Seas that restlessly aspire, / Surging, unto skies of fire;

1844 June, Edgar Allan Poe, “Dream-Land”, in Graham’s Magazine, volume 25, number 6, page 256

There is a moonshaped rictus in the streetlamp’s globe where a stone has gone and from this aperture there drifts down through the constant helix of aspiring insects a faint and steady rain of the same forms burnt and lifeless.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, New York: Vintage, published 1992, page 4