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.
Am*bi"tion, v. t. [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.