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]
Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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105 Moby Thesaurus words for "ambition":
aim, ambitiousness, animus, anxiety, appetite, aspiration, avidity,
basis, calling, careerism, catch, cause, climbing, consideration,
counsel, craving, dearest wish, desideration, desideratum, design,
desire, determination, dream, drive, eagerness, effect, energy,
enterprise, enthusiasm, fancy, fixed purpose, forbidden fruit,
function, get-up-and-go, glimmering goal, go-ahead, goad, goal,
golden vision, ground, guiding light, guiding star, hope, hunger,
idea, ideal, incentive, initiative, inspiration, intendment,
intent, intention, keenness, lodestar, lodestone, lofty ambition,
magnanimity, magnet, mainspring, mark, matter, meaning, mind,
motive, nirvana, nisus, object, objective, plan, plum, point,
power-hunger, pretension, principle, prize, project, proposal,
prospectus, purpose, push, reason, resolution, resolve, sake,
score, social climbing, source, spirit, spring, spur,
status-seeking, striving, study, target, temptation, thirst,
trophy, ulterior motive, vaulting ambition, view, vigor, vocation,
will, wish, zeal
Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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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.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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