All 23 Uses of
motive
in
David Copperfield
- 'Always fishing for motives, when they're on the surface!†
Chpt 13-15motives = reasons for doing something
- The young creature in pink had a mother in green; and I rather think the latter separated us from motives of policy.†
Chpt 31-33 *
- 'I looked for single motives in everyone,' said Mr. Wickfield, and I was satisfied I had bound him to me by motives of interest.†
Chpt 37-39
- 'I looked for single motives in everyone,' said Mr. Wickfield, and I was satisfied I had bound him to me by motives of interest.†
Chpt 37-39
- I assure you I am in no danger of putting any strained construction on your motives.†
Chpt 46-48
- The rest was left contingent on the value of my professional exertions; in other and more expressive words, on the baseness of my nature, the cupidity of my motives, the poverty of my family, the general moral (or rather immoral) resemblance between myself and — HEEP.†
Chpt 52-54
- Some future traveller, visiting, from motives of curiosity, not unmingled, let us hope, with sympathy, the place of confinement allotted to debtors in this city, may, and I trust will, Ponder, as he traces on its wall, inscribed with a rusty nail, 'The obscure initials, 'W.†
Chpt 52-54
- I was moved by no interested or selfish motive, nor was I moved by fear of him.†
Chpt 7-9
- You know my motive.†
Chpt 13-15
- What's your motive in this?'†
Chpt 13-15
- 'It must be a mixed motive, I think,' said Mr. Wickfield, shaking his head and smiling incredulously.†
Chpt 13-15
- 'You claim to have one plain motive in all you do yourself.†
Chpt 13-15
- 'Ay, but I have only one motive in life, Miss Trotwood,' he rejoined, smiling.†
Chpt 13-15
- Whatever the motive, you want the best?'†
Chpt 13-15
- My aunt embracing the proposal, we were all three going out together, when he stopped and said: 'Our little friend here might have some motive, perhaps, for objecting to the arrangements.†
Chpt 13-15
- When I heard how he said it, and saw how he held her hand, I guessed what the one motive of his life was.†
Chpt 13-15
- I believe,' he said this with some hesitation, 'I penetrate your motive, and it makes the thing more difficult.'†
Chpt 16-18
- 'My motive,' returned Doctor Strong, 'is to make some suitable provision for a cousin, and an old playfellow, of Annie's.'†
Chpt 16-18
- 'No motive,' said Mr. Wickfield, 'for meaning abroad, and not at home?'†
Chpt 16-18
- 'I don't mention it reproachfully, however, but with a motive.†
Chpt 34-36
- 'But I've got a motive, as my fellow-partner used to say; and I go at it tooth and nail.†
Chpt 40-42
- 'My dear Strong,' said Mr. Wickfield in a tremulous voice, 'my good friend, I needn't tell you that it has been my vice to look for some one master motive in everybody, and to try all actions by one narrow test.†
Chpt 40-42
- I could have no other motive, Trot, in keeping anything from you.'†
Chpt 52-54
Definitions:
-
(1)
(motive as in: What is her motive?) a reason for doing something
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Less commonly, motive can refer to something that causes motion in an inanimate object. Even less commonly, it can refer to a distinctive feature in music, art, or literature.