aim

aim vb

1 point, *direct, level, train, lay

Analogous words: bend, *curve, twist

2 Aim, aspire, pant all may mean to have as a controlling desire something beyond one’s present power of attainment. Aim stresses a clearly defined end toward which one’s efforts are directed or which one holds as a goal to be reached through endeavor or striving

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men aiming to advance in life with glory— Hardy

}

{

Christianity aims at nothing less than absolute truth— lnge

}

{

get honor, and keep honor free from flaw, aim at still higher honor— Browning

}

Aspire, especially when followed by an infinitive, often adds little to aim except the suggestion of ambition

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those who do not aspire to be scholars— Crothers

}

{

aspiring to be the leader of a nation of third-rate men— Mencken

}

It may, however, imply urgency of longing for something that is high, often too high for attainment

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since first my thirsting soul aspired to know the secrets of their wondrous world— Shelley

}

{

what I aspired to be, and was not, comforts me— Browning

}

Pant comes into comparison with the other words only in its extended sense of biblical origin

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as the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God— Ps 27:1

}

Even more than aspire it stresses the fervor of the desire and the remoteness of that which is desired. Sometimes it connotes urgent unsatisfied thirst

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more happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoyed, for ever panting, and forever young— Keats

}

It may also suggest not the gasps of one thirsting but of one toiling upward

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[the] Brave, and Good, and Wise, for their high guerdon not in vain have panted!— Wordsworth

}

Analogous words: *intend, purpose, propose, design: *attempt, essay, endeavor, try

aim n end, goal, objective, purpose, *intention, object, intent, design

Analogous words: aspiration, *ambition: *effort, exertion, pains, trouble