All 3 Uses
motive
in
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
(Auto-generated)
- He was always right about his facts and always wrong about the motives that produced the facts.†
Chpt 1motives = reasons for doing something
- There were no questions about who stomped him—his murderers had boasted freely—and there were no questions about the motive.†
Chpt 3 *motive = reason (for doing something)
- They speculated about Winnie Ruth's motives for this recent murder.†
Chpt 4motives = reasons for doing something
Definitions:
-
(1)
(motive as in: What is her motive?) a reason for doing something
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(2)
(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.