aspire
verb (used without object)
to long, aim, or seek ambitiously; be eagerly desirous, especially for something great or of high value (usually followed by to, after, or an infinitive).
was aspiring
-
past progressiveof aspire.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After catering to retirees and families on road trips, Cracker Barrel was aspiring to court younger guests.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2025
After high school, I was aspiring to be a fashion designer, so I was trying my best to get into the top fashion school in India.
From Salon ● Nov. 9, 2024
I was aspiring to create that big summer movie experience and a movie that had to be seen on the big screen.
From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2022
My own aspiration — before, I wouldn’t probably say it — but I was aspiring to make sure that, if it’s up to me, one third of the industry of hip-hop would be my vibe.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 5, 2022
And yet it was in the middle years of the seventeenth century that the ideal to which it was aspiring had been proclaimed frankly by the forgotten Furetière in the preface to his “Roman Bourgeois.”
From A Manual of the Art of Fiction by Clayton Meeker Hamilton
