From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishambitiousam‧bi‧tious /æmˈbɪʃəs/ ●●○ adjective 1 AMBITIOUSdetermined to be successful, rich, powerful etc 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)2 WANTan 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 the Corpus
ambitious• Linda has always been an ambitious and hard-working manager.• The Harbor Tunnel is one of the most ambitious engineering projects of modern times.• I am delighted that they are ambitious for themselves.• The main candidate for the position is Robert Lutz, age 59, an ambitious former Ford Motor Co. executive.• Neither does he know what it is not to be ambitious like him.• Whatever expectations his parents had of him, Valentin grew up the best-balanced and the least ambitious of their children.• He was too ambitious on both counts.• Women have to be more ambitious than men if they want to get anywhere in the business world.• The ambitious touring database proposals have been shelved.• Hutchings, like many ambitious young lawyers, became interested in politics.highly ambitious• He is highly ambitious and career-centred.• They were relevant, exciting and highly ambitious in the knowledge and skills they demanded of teachers.• Yet, such an integration would entail a highly ambitious legal and political undertaking. 