different between ambition vs try

English

Etymology

From Middle English ambicion, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambiti? (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambi? (“I go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æm?b?.??n/

Noun

ambition (countable and uncountable, plural ambitions)

1. (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
   • 1756, Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society

     the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres

2. (countable) An object of an ardent desire.

3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
4. (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
5. (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ambition.

Related terms

• ambience
• ambient
• ambit
• ambitious
• ambitionist

Translations

Verb

ambition (third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned)

1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
   • 1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus

     Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.

Further reading

• ambition in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ambition in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Danish

Noun

ambition c

1. ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiøs

Further reading

• “ambition” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ambition” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Finnish

Noun

ambition

1. Genitive singular form of ambitio.

French

Etymology

From Latin ambiti?

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.bi.sj??/

Noun

ambition f (plural ambitions)

1. ambition (feeling)

Related terms

• ambitieux
• ambitionner

Further reading

• “ambition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

ambition c

1. en ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiös

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?, IPA^(key): /t?a?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Etymology 1

From Middle English trien (“to try a legal case”), from Anglo-Norman trier (“to try a case”), Old French trier (“to choose, pick out or separate from others, sift, cull”), of uncertain origin. Believed to be a metathetic variation of Old French tirer (“to pull out, snatch”), from Gothic ???????????????????? (tiran, “to tear away, remove”), from Proto-Germanic *teran? (“to tear, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *der- (“to tear, tear apart”), see tear. Related to Occitan triar (“to pick out, choose from among others”). Alternatively or by confluence, the Old French is from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *triare, of unknown origin.

Replaced native Middle English cunnen (“to try”) (from Old English cunnian), Middle English fandien (“to try, prove”) (from Old English fandian), and Middle English costnien (“to try, tempt, test”) (from Old English costnian).

Alternative forms

• trie (obsolete)

Verb

try (third-person singular simple present tries, present participle trying, simple past and past participle tried)

1. To attempt; to endeavour. Followed by infinitive.
2. (obsolete) To divide; to separate.
   1. To separate (precious metal etc.) from the ore by melting; to purify, refine.
   2. (one sort from another) To winnow; to sift; to pick out; frequently followed by out.
      • 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke named the Governour

   • the wylde corne, beinge in shap and greatnesse lyke to the good, if they be mengled, with great difficultie will be tried out

   1. (nautical) To extract oil from blubber or fat; to melt down blubber to obtain oil
   2. To extract wax from a honeycomb
3. To test, to work out.
   1. To make an experiment. Usually followed by a present participle.

   2. To put to test.
      • 1922, E. F. Benson, Miss Mapp, p. 89:

        “So mousie shall only find tins on the floor now,” thought Miss Mapp. “Mousie shall try his teeth on tins.”
   3. (specifically) To test someone's patience.

   4. (figuratively, chiefly used in the imperative) To receive an imminent attack; to take.
      • 1999, Mona the Vampire, "The X-Change Student" (season 1, episode 6a):

        Mona: Try this vampire bolt on for size!

        Cedric: Why don't you try this alien bolt?

   5. To taste, sample, etc.

   6. To prove by experiment; to apply a test to, for the purpose of determining the quality; to examine; to prove; to test.
   7. (with indirect interrogative clause) To attempt to determine (by experiment or effort).
   9. (law) To put on trial.
      • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I:

        The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

      • 1987, Hadi Khorsandi, trans. Ehssan Javan, “It Didn’t Quite Work Out—2” in The Ayatollah and I:

        I sit in front of the mirror and try myself. I am no impartial judge, otherwise I would have had myself executed several times over by now.
4. To experiment, to strive.
   1. To have or gain knowledge of by experience.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

   2. To work on something.

   3. (obsolete) To do; to fare.

   4. To settle; to decide; to determine; specifically, to decide by an appeal to arms.
   5. (euphemistic, of a couple) To attempt to conceive a child.
5. (nautical) To lie to in heavy weather under just sufficient sail to head into the wind.
6. To strain; to subject to excessive tests.

7. (slang, chiefly African-American Vernacular, used with another verb) To want

Usage notes

• (to attempt): This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. Conjugations unmarked for tense can take and instead of to, for which also see Citations:try.

• (to make an experiment): This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing).
• See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• In older forms of English, when the pronoun thou was in active use, and verbs used -est for distinct second-person singular indicative forms, the verb try had the form triest, and had triedst for its past tense.
• Similarly, when the ending -eth was in active use for third-person singular present indicative forms, the form trieth was used.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to attempt): attempt, endeavor, fand, mint, take a run at, take a stab at
• (to taste, sample, etc): sample, taste

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

try (plural tries)

1. An attempt.
2. An act of tasting or sampling.

3. (rugby) A score in rugby league and rugby union, analogous to a touchdown in American football.
4. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A screen, or sieve, for grain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

5. (American football) a field goal or extra point

Synonyms

• (an attempt): bash, go, stab, whirl
• (an act of tasting or sampling): sampling, taste, tasting
• (a score in rugby): touchdown (American football)
• (the point after touchdown): extra point (American football)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Probably from Old French trié.

Adjective

try (comparative more try, superlative most try)

1. (obsolete) Fine, excellent.

Anagrams

• Tyr

Cornish

Alternative forms

• (Standard Written Form) trei
• (Standard Written Form) tri

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *tri, from Proto-Celtic *tr?s, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

Numeral

try

1. (Standard Cornish) three

Related terms

• teyr

See also

• (cardinal number): Previous: dew. Next: peswar

Portuguese

Noun

try m (plural tries)

1. try (a score in rugby)

   Synonym: ensaio

2. (programming) try (block of code that may trigger exceptions)

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /tr??/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /tri?/

Verb

try

1. third-person singular present indicative/future of troi

Mutation

Westrobothnian

Numeral

try n

1. neuter nominative/accusative of tri (“three”)