There are three uses here. aim + infinitive We aim to finish the bottle. (we plan to finish the bottle. We have an objective of finishing the bottle) Our aim is to finish the bottle aim for When shooting a free throw, aim for the back of the rim. The hunter aimed for the bear's head. Messi aimed for the upper right corner of the goal, but his shot bounced off the post. take aim at The sniper took aim at his target, but was killed before he could get his shot off. The newspaper took aim at the politician because he attacked freedom of the press. You can't really "aim" a knife, unless you were planning to throw it. Let's play a game. The first person to get his paper in the basket wins. (in my opinion, trying to throw something into something isn't a good use of "aim". You could "aim" for a part of the basket though.)