ASPIRING • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Aspiring

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/əspˈaɪrɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Aspire v. t. To aspire to; to long for; to try to reach; to mount to. (Obs.) "That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds."

Aspire v. i. (past & past part. aspired; pres. part. aspiring)

To desire with eagerness; to seek to attain something high or great; to pant; to long; followed by to or after, and rarely by at; as, to aspire to a crown; to aspire after immorality. "Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; Aspiring to be angels, men rebel."

To rise; to ascend; to tower; to soar. "My own breath still foments the fire, Which flames as high as fancy can aspire."

adjective

Aspiring adj. That aspires; as, an Aspiring mind.

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Etymology of 'Aspiring'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Aspiring" Quotes from Famous Books

... the cheering fluid. Gradually each gentleman's nose was eclipsed by the aspiring orb of pottery. The mugs assumed a lofty elevation, then fell, to rise no more. The two gentlemen beamed with amity. Each respected the other, ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 32, June, 1860 • Various

... mind to try on the best she could find of her mistress's gowns and millinery. By hook and by crook, combined with a blithe assiduity, she managed to open doors and drawers, and if mimicry is the heaven of aspiring laziness, the maid presently stood unchallenged on the highest plateau of a sluggard's bliss. She minced before the mirror, she sank into chairs, she sighed and whined, took the attitudes given or implied by the other ...

— John March, Southerner • George W. Cable

... inferior in rank to the former. The peculiarly majestic character of the palm is given not only by their lofty stems, but also in a very high degree by the form and arrangement of their leaves. How diverse, yet equally graceful, are the aspiring branches of the jagua and the drooping foliage of the cocoa, the shuttlecock-shaped crowns of the ubussu and the plumes of the jupati, forty feet in length. The inflorescence always springs from the top ...

— The Andes and the Amazon - Across the Continent of South America • James Orton

... back from the aspiring Edith to Richard Harrington, and as old Rachel soon came in to remove her mistress' breakfast, Kitty took her leave, saying as she ...

— Darkness and Daylight • Mary J. Holmes

... very much did the royal maiden, hitherto so gay and "fancy-free" see of her cousin Albert preparatory to bidding him an indefinite adieu, that on the second day even, cause for jealousy was given to aspiring courtiers by smiles and words, especially sweet and gracious, bestowed on the fair Saxon Knight. On that second day the Queen wrote to her uncle Leopold: "Albert's beauty is most striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected; in short, very ...

— Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood • Grace Greenwood

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