Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting.

*, III.2.1.ii:

*:there's something in a woman beyond all human delight; a magnetic virtue, a charming quality, an occult and powerful motive .

An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.

* 1947 , (Malcolm Lowry), Under the Volcano :

Many of them at first seemed kind to him, but it turned out their motives were not entirely altruistic.

(obsolete, rare) A limb or other bodily organ that can move.

(Shakespeare)

(legal) Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

What would his motive be for burning down the cottage?

No-one could understand why she had hidden the shovel; her motives were obscure at best.

* {{quote-book, year=1931, author=

, chapter=10/6, title= Death Walks in Eastrepps , passage=“Why should Eldridge commit murder?

(architecture, fine arts) A motif.

(music) A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive .

Noun

(en-noun)

The tendency to attract.

The feeling of being attracted.

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction . A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.}}

An event or location that has a tendency to attract visitors.

(chess) The sacrifice of pieces in order to expose the enemy king.