From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishaspireas‧pire /əˈspaɪə $ əˈspaɪr/ ●○○ verb [intransitive] WANTto desire and work towards achieving something importantaspire to college graduates aspiring to careers in financeaspire to do something At that time, all serious artists aspired to go to Rome.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
aspire• How he must have aspired to rise up forcefully, his yearning impregnating the walls with a similar passion.• Laura had always aspired to the very best within a certain budget; her budget had now expanded.• What he aspired to was the union of southern Anglian peoples under the leadership of a Mercian king and a Mercian archbishop.aspire to do something• Since then he has created a garden few of us would aspire to after a lifetime of gardening.• Franz never aspired to be a movie star.• Most of us aspire to be as good in our jobs as Rice is in his.• Johnson aspires to become the city's first woman mayor.• She had always collected what she aspired to in her own work.• Once the Cowboys aspired to nothing but excellence and accepted only bottom-line success.• Folk-song was a special case: here words were said to aspire to the condition of music.• To hold such a cure, a man must aspire to the crown of humanity.Origin aspire (1300-1400) Old French aspirer, from Latin aspirare “to breathe on”, from ad- “to, on to” + spirare “to breathe” 