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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.

Possessing, or controlled by, ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. Shak.

ature; partaking of two natures. Not in free and common socage, but in this amphibious subordinate class of villein socage. Blackstone.

Subservient or subordinate, like a handmaid; auxiliary. The Convocation of York seems to have been always considered as inferior, and even ancillary, to the greater province. Hallam.

An administration subordinate to, and in aid of, the primary or principal administration of an estate.

A mania for, or an inordinate attachment to, English customs, institutions, etc.

A subordinate or subsidiary part or organ; an external organ or limb, esp. of the articulates. Antennæ and other appendages used for feeling. Carpenter.

Anything attached to another as incidental or subordinate to it.

Taylor. Applicate number (Math.), one which applied to some concrete case. -- Applicate ordinate, right line applied at right angles to the axis of any conic section, and bounded by the curve.

ch is behind"; the rear; -- chiefly used as an adjective in the sense of behind, rear, subordinate. Arriere fee, Arriere fief, a fee or fief dependent on a superior fee, or a fee held of a feudatory. -- Arriere vassal, the vassal of a vassal.

A constituent particle of matter, or a molecule supposed to be made up of subordinate particles.

An excessive or inordinate desire of gain; greediness after wealth; covetousness; cupidity. To desire money for its own sake, and in order to hoard it up, is avarice. Beattie.

spirally in order to trace the circumvolutions without. -- Axis of abscissas and Axis of ordinates. See Abscissa.

The space which is behind and subordinate to a portrait or group of figures.

ease characterized by enlargement of the thyroid gland, prominence of the eyeballs, and inordinate action of the heart; -- called also exophthalmic goiter. Flint.

An inordinate secretion and discharge of mucus.

pe fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails, by subordinate ropes, called bridles, and used to keep the weather edge of the sail tight forward, when the ship is closehauled. Bowline bridles, the ropes by which the bowline is fastened to the leech of the sail. -- Bowline knot. See…

To divide as into branches; to make subordinate division in.

A local or subordinate law; a private law or regulation made by a corporation for its own government. There was likewise a law to restrain the by-laws, or ordinances of corporations. Bacon. The law or institution; to which are added two by-laws, as a comment upon the general law. Addison.

Work aside from regular work; subordinate or secondary business.