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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, noun [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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ambition \Am*bi"tion\, verb (used with an object) [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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
ambition
noun
1: a cherished desire; "his ambition is to own his own business" [syn: {aspiration}, {dream}]
2: a strong drive for success [syn: {ambitiousness}]
verb: have as one's ambition
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
AMBITION, noun An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.
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