ambition Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a cherished desire
    aspiration; dream.
    • his ambition is to own his own business
  2. noun a strong drive for success
    ambitiousness.
  3. verb have as one's ambition

WordNet

Am*bi"tion noun
Etymology
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.
Definitions
  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.
Am*bi"tion transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. F. ambitionner.
Definitions
  1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. R.
    Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. Trumbull.

Webster 1913