ambitiousam‧bi‧tious /æmˈbɪʃəs/ ●●○ adjective 
Alfred was intensely ambitious, obsessed with the idea of becoming rich.ambitious for mothers who are highly ambitious for their children (=who want their children to be successful)2an ambitious plan, idea etc shows a desire to do something good but difficult: an ambitious engineering project an over-ambitious health reform program—ambitiously adverb—ambitiousness noun [uncountable]
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Hutchings, like many ambitious young lawyers, became interested in politics.
- Linda has always been an ambitious and hard-working manager.
- The Harbor Tunnel is one of the most ambitious engineering projects of modern times.
- The main candidate for the position is Robert Lutz, age 59, an ambitious former Ford Motor Co. executive.
- Women have to be more ambitious than men if they want to get anywhere in the business world.
- He was too ambitious on both counts.
- I am delighted that they are ambitious for themselves.
- Neither does he know what it is not to be ambitious like him.
- The ambitious touring database proposals have been shelved.
- Whatever expectations his parents had of him, Valentin grew up the best-balanced and the least ambitious of their children.
Longman Language Activatorremaining or continuing forever
determined to be successful and to become rich, powerful, or famous: · Hutchings, like many ambitious young lawyers, became interested in politics.· The main candidate for the position is Robert Lutz, age 59, an ambitious former Ford Motor Co. executive.· Women have to be more ambitious than men if they want to get anywhere in the business world.
determination to be successful and to become rich, powerful, or famous: · Eric wasn't particularly intelligent but he had plenty of ambition.· "Your problem," said Arthur, "is that you have no ambition."
very determined to get power and control in business or politics even if you harm other people by doing this: · Most politicians are power-hungry people who serve only themselves.· The article described the company's vice-president, Victor Rowan, as deceitful and power-hungry.
informal someone who is very ambitious and hard-working, in a way that you admire: · George was a go-getter; he wasn't afraid to take a risk.somebody's a real go-getter: · You can't help admiring Debbie -- she's a real go-getter.
determined to be more successful than other people in work, sport etc: · Beth's very competitive, even with her friends.fiercely/intensely competitive (=very competitive): · Fiercely competitive at all times, Ravi is a difficult man to work with.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY mothers who are highly ambitious for their children (=who want their children to be successful) an over-ambitious health reform programCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
1determined to be successful, rich, powerful etc: mothers who are highly ambitious for their children (=who want their children to be successful) an over-ambitious health reform program (=an aim that will be difficult to achieve)· The agreement set ambitious goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
· The plan was very ambitious, but it worked.
· The European Community embarked on an ambitious programme of research.
· Young people often enjoy the challenge of an ambitious project.
· The targets they have set themselves are hugely ambitious.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Something as big as that. As ambitious.
· They were relevant, exciting and highly ambitious in the knowledge and skills they demanded of teachers.· He is highly ambitious and career-centred.· Yet, such an integration would entail a highly ambitious legal and political undertaking.
· Perhaps, the Cancun failure encouraged the Commission to be less ambitious in its demands.· While the system proposed now has a less ambitious goal than Star Wars, the task is still very difficult.· Reyntiens' less celebrated, less ambitious collaborative windows are more successful.· Albertina Sisulu Elderly people need to take more time over love-making and be less ambitious.· Their mission was less ambitious than the day before: just to clear the air over the battlefield.· Other schemes for the training of diplomats were less ambitious and even less effective.· In the wake of this débâcle, subsequent attempts at policymaking were less ambitious, if not conspicuously more successful.· Indeed, it is giving the impression of being much less ambitious and much more practical than in the past.
· Mike, who worked at Barclays Bank, was more ambitious.· Hunt's Free is richer and more ambitious than 1959 in some ways, and less successful in others.· But because business sites are more ambitious, their costs are often dramatically higher.· It was Julie who had the sharper, more ambitious business mind and Tim is proud that it should have been so.· To preserve nonuse will require policies more ambitious and comprehensive than the obsolete bipolar deterrence strategy.· He was planning a more ambitious venture this time.· Cooking anything more ambitious was a waste of time.
· When order is restored over the next few weeks, Lotus will be ready for the most ambitious expansion in its history.· Epcot DiveQuest is one of the newest and most ambitious programs at Disney.· The report openly admits that this is the most ambitious assessment scheme ever attempted in the world.· A stultifying inversion has snuffed out some of the most ambitious air-quality bills in the Legislature this year.· Scott-Scobie, he's one of the most ambitious young men at the Forbidden City.· This, though less hazardous than the rape of Persephone, was perilous enough to satisfy the most ambitious.· As if in answer to this prayer one further Pathfinders production was launched in 1961- the most ambitious to date, Pathfinders to Venus.· One of the most ambitious of the Presbyterian preachers who embodied the new ministerial style was the Reverend Lyman Beecher.
· At the design stage it is easy to be over ambitious.
· Phases 2 and 3 seem overly ambitious given the present circumstances.· My goal at the moment is three times a week, perhaps overly ambitious.
· Leopards are by no means always so ambitious in choosing their victims.· Naturally nothing so ambitious as the conquest of Hawaii had even entered our calculations.· Roshanara Begum, with her less magnificent resources, was unable to contribute anything quite so ambitious.· I'd never met anyone so ambitious and as single-minded.
· Don't be too ambitious in the early stages.· Nothing more to hope for. Too ambitious, maybe.· Buck was too ambitious with his shot from a bad lie.· Maybe she will try writing again, nothing too ambitious, a fun poem in the limerick mode.· The measurements so far suggest that this will be far too ambitious.· But if it was educational for Amelia, she was much too ambitious for it to be satisfying.· A bit too ambitious, that lad, he'd like to see me come unstuck.· He was too ambitious on both counts.
· I was very ambitious to become a big success.· My aunt Mary was petite, pretty, and very ambitious.· He was very competent and very ambitious, but he was also a tyrant.· As the title suggests, the scope of the book is very ambitious.· He is very ambitious and will work on his nerve more than is right.· He had visualised some one diamond-hard, very chic, very ambitious.
NOUN· Congress also declined to cooperate with Reagan in many of his more ambitious attempts to reduce the size of the federal government.· Even more ambitious attempts to bring trade unionists and community activists together in educational settings have taken place at Northern College.
· The ambitious goal of reducing real total public expenditure in absolute terms was never achieved.· While the system proposed now has a less ambitious goal than Star Wars, the task is still very difficult.· Conductive education is also about setting ambitious goals, and then getting children to achieve them because they want a for themselves.· They were always worrying about achieving some ambitious goal in the future, rather than simply sitting back and enjoying the moment.· If it seems an ambitious goal, let me ask you a simple question.· But it does fall short of the admittedly ambitious goal of being a unified, indispensable do-it-all communications program.· Irving met that ambitious goal in only four.
· She had been out with a young lawyer once, a bumptious and ambitious man, and a boring one.· Gutzon Borglum was an ambitious man, to his own mind a visionary.· He was still the hard, ambitious man who had married her for her father's company, not for love.· Like Tatum, Dzhabrailov was a dapper, ambitious man and the two hit it off for a while.· That bustling, hustling, ambitious man who never listened and never gave up was now stiff and silent and still.· The bond struck between these ambitious men was to endure.· The endless levels might appear, superficially, to hold great promise of promotion for an ambitious man.
· He often stopped reading or writing to stare into the distance, dreaming perhaps of some ambitious plan.· Fixing Mars would not consume enough resources to interfere with any of our really ambitious plans.· But such is the demand that studios have ambitious plans for expansion.· Governments, industrialists, colonialists, charities and individuals have all devised ambitious plans to develop it.· Giddy from their wartime success, the Communists launched an ambitious plan aimed at expanding the economy by 14 percent a year.· Oil had stimulated new industry, cities were being modernized rapidly and ambitious plans promised change in the countryside.· Gordon had ambitious plans for the department, and he was eager, in his restrained way, to move ahead.
· While in office he was most noted for his ambitious programme of public works financed by foreign debt.· That will make it hard to push through such an ambitious programme of reform.· In fact, the Soviets were planning an ambitious programme called Zond.· It proposed an ambitious programme of investment and the designation of Cabinet colleagues as ministers for various decaying areas.· Since then the 25 business men and women on the committee have been working to an ambitious programme.· Art & Tech has outlined an extremely ambitious programme that calls for three different mid-engined sports car to be produced.
· For truly ambitious projects, you might simply have to build your own.· Union policies for new technology represent an ambitious project and negotiation of technology agreements is still at an early stage.· The failure of ambitious projects within the Council was evident by the time of its second session in 1950.· When 1 visited Hall and his colleagues there they were beginning their most ambitious project yet.· But there is scope for competitive bidding in less ambitious projects.· Jack's hobby was model making and he was currently engaged in a vast and ambitious project.· More ambitious projects will be possible when you have become fully proficient with your new equipment.· One particularly ambitious project involved setting up and staffing an advice centre within a hostel for homeless people.
· Only parts of this ambitious scheme were achieved.· Clearly not all the ambitious schemes of the Stewart kings were successful.· Paving slabs are available in a wide variety of shapes, colours and finishes to suit the most ambitious schemes.· The biggest fiasco was the most ambitious scheme of all, the Masai Development Plan of the 1950s.
· Such an ambitious target was dependent upon adequate financial flows, access to the North's markets and secure oil supplies.· It is an ambitious target, but Leblanc believes it is attainable.· Now they are going for a more ambitious target - one company-wide registration to include safety, personnel and management services.· They have set themselves hugely ambitious targets.· Many analysts had called for a more ambitious target in reducing the budget deficit.
Alfred was intensely ambitious, obsessed with the idea of becoming rich.ambitious for mothers who are highly ambitious for their children (=who want their children to be successful)2an ambitious plan, idea etc shows a desire to do something good but difficult: an ambitious engineering project an over-ambitious health reform program—ambitiously adverb—ambitiousness noun [uncountable]