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 quality (positive or negative) that renders something desirable or valuable.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport

, title= Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , passage=United were value for their win and Rooney could have had a hat-trick before half-time, with Paul Scholes also striking the post in the second half.}}

The degree of importance given to something.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)

, volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, […]. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.}}

The amount (of money or goods or services) that is considered to be a fair equivalent for something else.

* M'Culloch

An article may be possessed of the highest degree of utility, or power to minister to our wants and enjoyments, and may be universally made use of, without possessing exchangeable value .

* Dryden

His design was not to pay him the value of his pictures, because they were above any price.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}

(music) The relative duration of a musical note.

(arts) The relative darkness or lightness of a color in (a specific area of) a painting etc.

* Joe Hing Lowe

I establish the colors and principal values by organizing the painting into three values--dark, mediumand light.

Numerical quantity measured or assigned or computed.

Precise meaning; import.

the value''' of a word; the '''value of a legal instrument

(Mitford)

(obsolete) Esteem; regard.

(Dryden)

* Bishop Burnet

My relation to the person was so near, and my value for him so great.

(obsolete) valour; also spelled valew

(Spenser)