\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.