MOTIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Motive

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/mˈoʊtɪv/ Listen

noun

Motive n.

1.

That which moves; a mover. (Obs.)

2.

That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choise, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement; object; motivation (2). "By motive, I mean the whole of that which moves, excites, or invites the mind to volition, whether that be one thing singly, or many things conjunctively."

3.

(Mus.) The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is reproduced and varied through the course of a comor a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is develpoed. See also Leading motive, under Leading. (Written also motivo)

4.

(Fine Arts) That which produces conception, invention, or creation in the mind of the artist in undertaking his subject; the guiding or controlling idea manifested in a work of art, or any part of one.

Synonyms: Incentive; incitement; inducement; reason; spur; stimulus; cause. Motive, Inducement, Reason. Motive is the word originally used in speaking of that which determines the choice. We call it an inducement when it is attractive in its nature. We call it a reason when it is more immediately addressed to the intellect in the form of argument.

verb

Motive v. t. To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

adjective

Motive adj. Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power. "Motive faculty."

Motive power (Mach.), a natural agent, as water, steam, wind, electricity, etc., used to impart motion to machinery; a motor; a mover.

See images of 'Motive'

Etymology of 'Motive'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Motive" Quotes from Famous Books

... not seek to learn. Trust Davidson to make money, and to make the most of life also as he went along. He always had the best of everything; and surely now he had, for the leisurely, ease-seeking Belle Helene, not actuated by any vast motive beyond that of the bee and the honey flower, slipped on down and ahead with perfect ease, while we, grimy, slow, determined, plowed on in her wake losing miles each hour the graceful Belle Helene chose to show us her light disdainful heels, serenely indifferent ...

— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough

... refers to the tapster, it signifies to drain, to empty; as it is related to hang, it means to be conveyed to execution on a hurdle. In Froth's answer, it is the same as to bring along by some motive or power. ...

— Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I Comedies • Samuel Johnson

... subject of great mercies God has shown her. From some of these very good doctrine may be gathered, and this, as she declares, was, besides compliance with obedience, her principal motive (in writing this book), namely to enumerate such of these mercies as would be instructive to souls. This chapter brings the history of her Life, written by herself, to an end. May it be for the glory ...

— The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus • Teresa of Avila

... close at hand, yet in its unity it seems always infinitely distant, and the difference of angle at which it is seen in India and in Minnesota is almost inappreciable. Moreover, a rooted discontent seems always to underlie all great poetry, if it be not even the motive of it. The Iliad and the Odyssey paint manners that are only here and there incidentally true to the actual, but which in their larger truth had either never existed or had long since passed away. Had Dante's scope been narrowed to contemporary ...

— The Function Of The Poet And Other Essays • James Russell Lowell

... "The motive," cried Tom, "that may be easily explained; and I doubt not but you will find, although it may at present appear a little mysterious, Sparkle will be fully able to shew cause and produce effect. He is however a man of honour and of property, and most likely we may by this time congratulate ...

— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

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