Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly.
- intransitive verb To strive toward an end or condition.
- intransitive verb Archaic To rise high; move upwards.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Aspiration; ardent wish or desire.
- To breathe to or into.
- To breathe forth or exhale.
- To breathe after; seek with eagerness to attain to; long or try to reach; attempt.
- To mount or soar to; attain.
- To be eagerly desirous; aim ambitiously, especially at something great or noble; be ambitious: followed by an object with to or after, or by an infinitive: as, to
aspire to a crown or after immortality. - To rise up as an exhalation, or as smoke or fire; hence, to mount or ascend; tower up or rise high.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to.
- noun obsolete Aspiration.
- intransitive verb To desire with eagerness; to seek to attain something high or great; to pant; to long; -- followed by
to orafter , and rarely byat - intransitive verb To rise; to ascend; to tower; to soar.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
hope ordream ; especially to hope or work towards aprofession oroccupation (followed by to as a preposition or infinitive particle).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb have an ambitious plan or a lofty goal
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word aspire.
Examples
-
The only good to which it should aspire is the perpetuation of its condition. —
‘Open For Questions’ Has Some Answers - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2009
-
Why not, in short, aspire to be a god when the alternative is to be a bum?
-
The greatest reward to which he can aspire is re-election.
-
Brown has heeded Mandy (for now ... possibly) and changed his mantra to 'aspire' - daylight theft of a Tory slogan.
-
To live is to aspire; to cease to aspire is to die.
Expositions of Holy Scripture Psalms Alexander Maclaren 1868
-
Let us rather regard the dignity and excellency of knowledge and learning in that whereunto man's nature doth most aspire, which is immortality or continuance.
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry Albert Pike 1850
-
Love is this thing that we all kind of aspire to receiving and giving, it's the one thing we're all kind of hungry for.
Constantin Bjerke: Rob Ryan's Whimsical Image Making (VIDEO) Constantin Bjerke 2011
-
Love is this thing that we all kind of aspire to receiving and giving, it's the one thing we're all kind of hungry for.
Constantin Bjerke: Rob Ryan's Whimsical Image Making (VIDEO) Constantin Bjerke 2011
-
And they realize the standard of Hollywood films is higher and they kind of aspire to that.
Interview with Slumdog Millionaire Director Danny Boyle | /Film 2008
-
How about our kids, teenagers, university students, ourselves -- is this something we want to "aspire" to intellectually or in any other way?
Blasphemy and Burlesque Burlesque Daily 2008
vanishedone commented on the word aspire
A vampire snake.
March 25, 2009
sionnach commented on the word aspire
The wrath of a snake. (see Cleopatra)
Funeral rites for a donkey.
March 26, 2009