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egiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed; faithlessness; teachery. The ambition and perfidy of tyrants. Macaulay. His perfidy to this sacred engagement. DeQuincey.

which shall never end till eternity hath a period. Jer. Taylor. This is the period of my ambition. Shak.

ains to the ocean; flowers pertain to plant life. Men hate those who affect that honor by ambition which pertaineth not to them. Hayward.

y which they banished for five years a citizen suspected of having dangerous influence or ambition. It was similar to the ostracism in Athens; but olive leaves were used instead of shells for ballots.

excite to action by causing resentment or jealousy; to stimulate; to prick; as, to pique ambition, or curiosity. Prior.

miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak.

The act of courting the favor of the people. [Obs.] "Indicted . . . for popularity and ambition." Holland.

into being or action; esp., to incense to action, a faculty or passion, as love, hate, or ambition; hence, commonly, to incite, as a person, to action by a challenge, by taunts, or by defiance; to exasperate; to irritate; to offend intolerably; to cause to retaliate. Obey his voice, provoke him not. Ex. xxiii. 21. Ye f…

flee when no man pursueth. Prov. xxviii. 1. Men hotly pursued after the objects of their ambition. Earle.

or urge forward; to drive; to push an objection too far. " To push his fortune." Dryden. Ambition pushes the soul to such actions as are apt to procure honor to the actor. Spectator. We are pushed for an answer. Swift.

verse to repose or quiet; eager for change; discontented; as, restless schemers; restless ambition; restless subjects. "Restless at home , and ever prone to range." Dryden.

l sectional interests, or party feelings, it is hoped, will hereafter yield to schemes of ambition. Story.

An embodiment of sin; a very wicked person. [R.] Thy ambition, Thou scarlet sin, robbed this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. Shak.

nders himself to any power whatever; as, a slave to passion, to lust, to strong drink, to ambition.

with vigor; to excite; to encourage; to inspirit; as, civil dissensions often spirit the ambition of private men; -- sometimes followed by up. Many officers and private men spirit up and assist those obstinate people to continue in their rebellion. Swift .

tstare the sternest eyes that look. Shak. When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Shak. Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard. Dryden. These barren rocks, your stern inheritance. Wordsworth.

ashed to the leg, and sometimes prolonged upward so as to be steadied by the hand or arm. Ambition is but avarice on stilts, and masked. Landor.

efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard. Was for this his ambition strove To equal Cæsar first, and after, Jove Cowley.

he stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much. Ex. xxxvi. 7. Ambitions should be made of sterner stuff. Shak. The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill. Sir J. Davies.

r. Bp. Fell. These ranks of creatures are subservient one to another. Ray. Their temporal ambition was wholly subservient to their proselytizing spirit. Burke.