From Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 1882 edition :
Am-bi-tion (bish’un), n. [Lat. ambitio, a going around, especially of candidates for office in Rome, to solicit votes; hence, desire for office or honor, from ambire, to go around; Fr. ambition, Pr. ambitio. See ambient.]
1. The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire. [Rare.] “[I] used no ambition to commend my deeds.” Milton.
2. An eager and sometimes an inordinate desire of preferment, honor, superiority, or power. Pope.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition:
By that sin fell the angels. Shak.
