Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Ambition \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.

Ambition \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.

Source : WordNet®

ambition
     n 1: a cherished desire; "his ambition is to own his own
          business" [syn: {aspiration}, {dream}]
     2: a strong drive for success [syn: {ambitiousness}]
     v : have as one's ambition