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Ambition - 5 dictionary results

am⋅bi⋅tion

[am-bish-uhn]
–noun
1. an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honor, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment: Too much ambition caused him to be disliked by his colleagues.
2. the object, state, or result desired or sought after: The crown was his ambition.
3. desire for work or activity; energy: I awoke feeling tired and utterly lacking in ambition.
–verb (used with object)
4. to seek after earnestly; aspire to.

Origin:
1300–50; ME ambicio(u)n (< MF) < L ambitiōn- (s. of ambitiō), equiv. to amb- ambi- + -i- go + -t- ptp. suffix + -iōn- -ion


am⋅bi⋅tion⋅less, adjective
am⋅bi⋅tion⋅less⋅ly, adverb


1. aspiration, yearning, longing. 2. goal, aim. 3. drive, force.
am·bi·tion   (ām-bĭsh'ən)   
n.  
    1. An eager or strong desire to achieve something, such as fame or power.
    2. The object or goal desired: Her ambition is the presidency.
  1. Desire for exertion or activity; energy: had no ambition to go dancing.

[Middle English ambicioun, excessive desire for honor, power, or wealth, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō, ambitiōn-, from ambitus, past participle of ambīre, to go around (for votes); see ambient.]

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.]

[I] used no ambition to commend my deeds. --Milton.

2. 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. --Shak.

The pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres. --Burke.

Ambition

Am*bi"tion\, v. t. [Cf. F. ambitionner.] To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [R.]

Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. --Trumbull.
Language Translation for : Ambition
Spanish: ambición,
German: der Ehrgeiz,
Japanese: 大望

ambition 
1340, from L. ambitionem (nom. ambitio) "a going around (to solicit votes)," from ambitus, pp. of ambire "to go around" (see ambient). Rarely used in the literal sense in Eng.; the sense of "eager or inordinate desire of honor or preferment" goes back to the L.
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