[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. Ardently desirous of advancement or distinction; of lofty aim, ambitious.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 154. We which are not of that aspiring mind.
1679. Establ. Test., 5. Having little left of all their aspiring Graspings after Empire.
1756. Burke, Vind. Nat. Soc., Wks. 1842, I. 12. Even virtue is dangerous, as an aspiring quality, that claims an esteem … independent of the countenance of the court.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 408. Two able and aspiring prelates.
2. Rising, tapering upward, soaring.
c. 1565. T. Robinson, Mary Mag., 416. Beheld th’ asp[i]ringe tower of vaine delight.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 135. It is usual to select aspiring Trees.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XII. 368. To sure destruction dooms the aspiring wall.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XIX. v. Wks. VIII. 160. Upward, to reach its head, For myriad years the aspiring Brama soar’d.
b. fig. (with some sense of 1 combined.)
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Oct., 84. Then make thee winges of thine aspyring wit.
1665–9. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), 48. The devout Reflector cannot take an occasion of an aspiring Meditation; as in a hopeful morning the humble Lark can.
