aspire

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Where all his hopes to see his name aspire,

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To have a great ambition or ultimate goal; desire strongly: aspired to stardom.
  2. intransitive verb To strive toward an end: aspiring to great knowledge.
  3. intransitive verb To soar.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • No longer need men of ardent minds weary themselves in the pursuit of what they fancy may be chief goods; no longer have they to wander about and encounter peril in quest of that unknown blessedness to which their hearts naturally aspire, as they did in heathen times. —  Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII (of 8)
  • The whole thing seemed a nightmare to any one who cared about these people In Labrador no cereals are grown and the summer frosts make potato and turnip crops precarious, so that the tops of the latter are practically all the green food to which we can aspire--except for the few families who remain at the heads of the long bays all summer, far removed from the polar current.
  • Let the ruby tide aspire, and all ruby aspirations with it! —  The Confidence-Man
  • 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
  • It was this high adoration that refined and ennobled my nature; that, in the mire of thraldom, taught me to aspire--taught me that, though a slave, I was yet a man. —  The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same contextWord Family

aspire:   aspiring ·  aspired ·  aspires
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English aspiren, from aspirer, from Latin aspīrāre, to desire; see aspirate.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from late Middle English aspire, from French aspirer = Provencal Spanish Portuguese aspirar = Italian aspirare, from Latin aspirare, adspirare, breathe or blow upon, desire to reach, from ad, to, + spirare, breathe, blow: see spirit. Cf. conspire, expire, inspire, perspire, respire, suspire, transpire.
  2. from aspire, v.
 

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/əˈspaɪr/
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