Noun

(en noun)

The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

* 1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows) :

...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

The place in which something is situated; a location.

* 1833 , Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory , page 142:

[Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.

Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}

(UK, dated) A position of employment; a post.

* 1913 , , (Sons and Lovers) , Penguin 2006, page 78:

When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.

* 1946 , Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, :

You take a morning paper from the top of the stack

And read the situations from the front to the back

The only job that's open need a man with a knack

So put it right back in the rack Jack.

A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

Boss, we've got a situation here...

Noun

(uncountable) A state of progression from one place to another.

(countable) A change of position with respect to time.

* Dr. H. More

This is the great wheel to which the clock owes its motion .

(physics) A change from one place to another.

* 1839 , Denison Olmsted, A Compendium of Astronomy Page 95

Secondly, When a body is once in motion' it will continue to move forever, unless something stops it. When a ball is struck on the surface of the earth, the friction of the earth and the resistance of the air soon stop its ' motion .

(countable) A parliamentary action to propose something.

The motion to amend is now open for discussion.

* Shakespeare

Yes, I agree, and thank you for your motion .

(obsolete) An entertainment or show, especially a puppet show.

* 1644 , (John Milton), Aeropagitica :

when God gave him reason, he gave him freedom to choose, for reason is but choosing; he had bin else a meer artificiall Adam'', such an ''Adam as he is in the motions .

(philosophy) from ; any change. Traditionally of four types: generation and corruption, alteration, augmentation and diminution, and change of place.

* 1662 , , Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 53:

"I say, it is no uneven jot, to pass from the more faint and obscure examples of Spermatical'' life to the more considerable effects of ''general Motion'' in ''Minerals'', ''Metalls'', and sundry ''Meteors'', whose easie and rude shapes may have no need of any Principle of Life, or ''Spermatical form'' distinct from the ''Rest'' or ''Motion'' of the particles of the ''Matter ."

Movement of the mind, desires, or passions; mental act, or impulse to any action; internal activity.

* South

Let a good man obey every good motion rising in his heart, knowing that every such motion proceeds from God.

(legal) An application made to a court or judge orally in open court. Its object is to obtain an order or rule directing some act to be done in favor of the applicant.

(music) Change of pitch in successive sounds, whether in the same part or in groups of parts. (Conjunct motion'' is that by single degrees of the scale. ''Contrary motion'' is when parts move in opposite directions. ''Disjunct motion'' is motion by skips. ''Oblique motion'' is when one part is stationary while another moves. ''Similar'' or ''direct motion is when parts move in the same direction.)

* Grove

The independent motions of different parts sounding together constitute counterpoint.

(obsolete) A puppet, or puppet show.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

What motion' s this? the model of Nineveh?