5 uses
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1 —2 uses as in:
What is her motive?
Definition
a reason for doing something
- Yet Archer was convinced that Madame Olenska had not accepted her grandmother's offer from interested motives.Chapter 31 (4% in)
- They preferred those about peasant life, because of the descriptions of scenery and the pleasanter sentiments, though in general they liked novels about people in society, whose motives and habits were more comprehensible, spoke severely of Dickens, who "had never drawn a gentleman," and considered Thackeray less at home in the great world than Bulwer—who, however, was beginning to be thought old-fashioned.Chapter 5 (17% in)
There are no more uses of "motive" flagged with this meaning in The Age of Innocence.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
? —3 uses
exact meaning not specified
- As he entered the box his eyes met Miss Welland's, and he saw that she had instantly understood his motive, though the family dignity which both considered so high a virtue would not permit her to tell him so.Chapter 2 (76% in)
- Mrs. Beaufort belonged indeed to one of America's most honoured families; she had been the lovely Regina Dallas (of the South Carolina branch), a penniless beauty introduced to New York society by her cousin, the imprudent Medora Manson, who was always doing the wrong thing from the right motive.Chapter 3 (12% in)
- May had disliked to move except for valid reasons, such as taking the children to the sea or in the mountains: she could imagine no other motive for leaving the house in Thirty-ninth Street or their comfortable quarters at the Wellands' in Newport.Chapter 34 (38% in)
There are no more uses of "motive" in The Age of Innocence.
Typical Usage
(best examples)