Noun

(en noun)

conscientiousness or determination or perseverance when doing something

A public stage-coach. (19th century, now used only in reference to France or other European countries including Great Britain.)

* 1818 , , Volume 1, Chapter V:

Continuing thus, I came at length opposite to the inn at which the various diligences and carriages usually stopped.

* {{quote-book

, year=1879 , author= , title= , passage=Being in a civilised country of stage-coaches, I determined to sell my lady friend and be off by the diligence that afternoon.}}

(legal, Scotland) The process by which persons, lands, or effects are seized for debt; process for enforcing the attendance of witnesses or the production of writings.

Noun

(en-noun)

(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.

My son, John, wants to be a firefighter very much. He has a lot of ambition .

* Burke

the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres

(countable) An object of an ardent desire.

My ambition is to own a helicopter.

A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.

(uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.

(obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

* Milton

[I] used no ambition to commend my deeds.