aspiring
English
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -aɪəɹɪŋ
Adjective
aspiring (not comparable)
- Hoping to become.
- Aspiring pop stars lined up for hours just to audition.
- Synonyms: ambitious, wannabe, would-be
- 1910, Emma Goldman, “Anarchism” in Anarchism, and Other Essays, New York: Mother Earth Publishing Association, p. 70,
- Time and time again the people were foolish enough to trust, believe, and support with their last farthing aspiring politicians, only to find themselves betrayed and cheated.
- 2018, Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, Chapter 16,
- Here three aspiring young seamstresses—diplomas in dressmaking from the People’s College of Zimbabwe hung on the wall—bicker and scowl at each other.
Verb
aspiring
- present participle of aspire
Derived terms
- aspiringly
Noun
aspiring (plural aspirings)
- (archaic) Aspiration.
- 1661, Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, London: Henry Eversden, Chapter 22, pp. 214-215,
- […] if we contemplate a vegetable in its material principle, and look on it as made of earth; we must have the true Theory of the nature of that Element, or we miserably fail of our Scientifical aspirings,
- 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 44, 18 August, 1750, in Volume 2, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, pp. 83-84,
- […] to the aspirings of unassuming trust, and filial confidence, are set no bounds.
- 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Revolt of Islam, London: C. and J. Ollier, Canto 4, stanza 12, p. 81,
- From whatsoe’er my wakened thoughts create
- Out of the hopes of thine aspirings bold,
- Have I collected language to unfold
- Truth to my countrymen;
- 1661, Joseph Glanvill, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, London: Henry Eversden, Chapter 22, pp. 214-215,
Anagrams
- pairings, praising