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Ambitious vs Secure - What's the difference?

ambitious | secure |

As adjectives the difference between ambitious and secure

is that ambitious is possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction while secure is free from attack or danger; protected.

As a verb secure is

to make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.

ambitious

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Possessing, or controlled by ambition; greatly or inordinately desirous of power, honor, office, superiority, or distinction.
  • * 1891 , , "The Man with the Twisted Lip,"
  • As I grew richer I grew more ambitious , took a house in the country, and eventually married, without anyone having a suspicion as to my real occupation.
  • Strongly desirous—followed by "of" or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something.
  • Springing from, characterized by, or indicating, ambition; showy; aspiring.
  • Hard to achieve.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme

    Usage notes

    * Said of people, projects, plans, goals, etc.

    Derived terms

    * ambitiously * ambitiousness * overambitious

    References

    * * * * * " ambitious" in the Wordsmyth Dictionary-Thesaurus (Wordsmyth, 2002) * " ambitious" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007) * " ambitious" in Compact Oxford English Dictionary , (Oxford University Press, 2007)

    secure

    English

    Alternative forms

    * secuer (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Free from attack or danger; protected.
  • Free from the danger of theft; safe.
  • Free from the risk of eavesdropping, interception or discovery; secret.
  • Free from anxiety or doubt; unafraid.
  • * Dryden
  • But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes.
  • Firm and not likely to fail; stable.
  • Free from the risk of financial loss; reliable.
  • Confident in opinion; not entertaining, or not having reason to entertain, doubt; certain; sure; commonly used with of .
  • secure of a welcome
  • * Milton
  • Confidence then bore thee on, secure / Either to meet no danger, or to find / Matter of glorious trial.
  • Overconfident; incautious; careless.
  • (Macaulay)

    Antonyms

    * insecure

    Derived terms

    * securely

    Verb

    (secur)
  • To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.
  • * Dryden
  • I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.
  • To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against'' or ''from'', or formerly with ''of .
  • to secure''' a creditor against loss; to '''secure a debt by a mortgage
  • * T. Dick
  • It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.
  • To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.
  • to secure''' a prisoner; to '''secure a door, or the hatches of a ship
  • To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.
  • to secure an estate
  • * 2014 , Jamie Jackson, " Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real", The Guardian , 26 August 2014:
  • With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive player, are potential targets.
    "[Captain] was able to secure some good photographs of the fortress." (Flight, 1911, p. 766)
  • * , chapter=3
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}

    Anagrams

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