aspire

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: aspiré

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English aspiren, from Old French aspirer, from Latin aspirare (“breathe on; approach; desire”).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /əˈspaɪə(ɹ)/
  • (US) IPA(key): /əˈspaɪɚ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: as‧pire

Verb[edit]

aspire (third-person singular simple present aspires, present participle aspiring, simple past and past participle aspired)

  1. (intransitive) To have a strong desire or ambition to achieve something.
    to aspire to / for / after / to do something; to aspire that something happens
    He aspires to become a successful doctor.
    We aspire that the world will be a better place.
    Synonyms: crave, pursue, strive, yearn, dream
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To go as high as, to reach the top of (something).
    Synonyms: ascend, mount
  3. (intransitive, archaic, literary) To move upward; to be very tall.
    Synonyms: ascend, rise, soar, tower
    • 1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC; republished as Hermann Breymann, editor, Doctor Faustus (Englische Sprach- und Literaturdenkmale des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts; 5; Marlowes Werke: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe […]; II), Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg: Verlag von Gebr[üder] Henninger, 1889, →OCLC, scene VIII:
      In midst of which a sumptuous Temple stands, / That threats the starres with her aspiring toppe.
    • 1794, Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, Volume 1, Chapter 4, p. 116,[4]
      As they descended, they saw […] one of the grand passes of the Pyreneáes into Spain, gleaming with its battlements and towers to the splendour of the setting rays, yellow tops of woods colouring the steeps below, while far above aspired the snowy points of the mountains, still reflecting a rosy hue.
    • 1844, Edgar Allan Poe, “Dream-Land” in Graham’s Magazine, Volume 25, No. 6, June, 1844, p. 256,[5]
      Seas that restlessly aspire, / Surging, unto skies of fire;
    • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, New York: Vintage, 1992, p. 4,[6]
      There is a moonshaped rictus in the streetlamp’s globe where a stone has gone and from this aperture there drifts down through the constant helix of aspiring insects a faint and steady rain of the same forms burnt and lifeless.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of aspirar

French[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. inflection of aspirer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams[edit]

Galician[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive of aspirar

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. inflection of aspirar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of aspira

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

aspire

  1. inflection of aspirar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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