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. ] 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 ]

v. t. [ Cf. F. ambitionner. ] To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage. Trumbull. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One excessively ambitious. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]