GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Found 2 definitions

1.       
   Ambition , 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.]
   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.
   
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   An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something.
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   Cromwell, I charge thee, fling a way ambition:
   By that sin fell the angels.
   Shak.
   
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   The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres.
   Burke.
   
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2.       
   Ambition, v. t. [Cf. F. ambitionner.] To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]
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   Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.
   Trumbull.
   
   1913 Webster