AMBITIOUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ambitious

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/æmbˈɪʃəs/ Listen

adjective

Ambitious adj.

Possessing, or controlled by, ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction. "Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man."

Strongly desirous; followed by of or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something. "I was not ambitious of seeing this ceremony." "Studious of song, and yet ambitious not to sing in vain."

Springing from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring; as, an ambitious style. "A giant statue... Pushed by a wild and artless race, From off wide, ambitious base."

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Etymology of 'Ambitious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ambitious" Quotes from Famous Books

... Her ambitious vision was disturbed by the crowd rushing forward; the gates were thronged with people of every age and sex, and Wallace himself appeared on his white charger, with his helmet off, bowing and smiling upon ...

— The Scottish Chiefs • Miss Jane Porter

... first of these two charges respects a supposed pedantry, or too ambitious a display of erudition. It is surprising to us that such an objection should have occurred to any man; both because, after all, the quantity of learning cannot be great for which any poem can find an opening; ...

— Theological Essays and Other Papers v2 • Thomas de Quincey

... of a certain eminent poet and artist, once the poet of love and dreamland, "the idle singer of an empty day," now seer and prophet, the herald of an age to come, in which none shall possess, though all shall enjoy. The brothers, more ambitious, attacked her through the reason, brought her popular translations and selections from Marx and Lassalle, together with each Venturist pamphlet and essay as it appeared; they flattered her with technical talk; they were ...

— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... names of any military persons who, according to custom, frequently made offers of their services to the heir apparent, and of causing them to take a solemn oath to keep their engagements. No other indications of warlike talent, however, have been preserved concerning him. "He was crafty, ambitious, cruel, violent," says the envoy Suriano, "a hater of buffoons, a lover of soldiers." His natural cruelty seems to have been remarkable from his boyhood. After his return from the chase, he was in the habit of cutting the throats of hares ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... has always been a dream of ambitious English statesmen, but the policy of the British Government has always been ...

— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 42, August 26, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

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