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.
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.