Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something, such as a machine or an engine, that produces or imparts motion.
  • noun A device that converts any form of energy into mechanical energy, especially an internal-combustion engine or an arrangement of coils and magnets that converts electric current into mechanical power.
  • noun A motor vehicle, especially an automobile.
  • adjective Causing or producing motion.
  • adjective Driven by or having a motor.
  • adjective Of or for motors or motor vehicles.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or designating nerves that carry impulses from the nerve centers to the muscles.
  • adjective Involving or relating to movements of the muscles.
  • intransitive verb To drive or travel in a motor vehicle.
  • intransitive verb To carry by motor vehicle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who or that which imparts motion; a source or originator of mechanical power; a moving power, as water, steam, etc.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun In mathematics, an operator or a quantity which represents the displacement of a rigid body.
  • noun In machinery, a prime mover; a contrivance for developing and applying mechanically some natural force, as heat, pressure, weight, the tide, or the wind; a machine which transforms the energy of water, steam, or electricity into mechanical energy: as, an electric motor. See machine, 2.
  • noun In anatomy, specifically, a motor nerve.
  • Giving motion; imparting motion.
  • In physiology, conveying from the center toward the periphery an impulse that results or tends to result in motion, as a nerve: opposed to sensory.
  • Of or pertaining to or acting through the motor nerves or tracts.
  • noun A motor-car.
  • noun In anatomy, specifically, a motor nerve.
  • noun An alternating-current motor in which the wattless current is compensated by a condenser or by auxiliary commutator-brushes; a compensated repulsion-motor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Causing or setting up motion; pertaining to organs of motion; -- applied especially in physiology to those nerves or nerve fibers which only convey impressions from a nerve center to muscles, thereby causing motion.
  • noun One who, or that which, imparts motion; a source of mechanical power.
  • noun (Mach.) A prime mover; a machine by means of which a source of power, as steam, moving water, electricity, etc., is made available for doing mechanical work.
  • noun archiac Colloq. A motor car; an automobile.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A machine or device that converts any form of energy into mechanical energy, or imparts motion.
  • noun colloquial A motor car, or automobile.
  • noun figuratively A source of power for something, an inspiration, a driving force.
  • adjective biology describing neurons that create the ability to move
  • verb To drive around leisurely in a motorised vehicle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a nonspecific agent that imparts motion
  • verb travel or be transported in a vehicle
  • noun machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion
  • adjective conveying information to the muscles from the CNS
  • adjective causing or able to cause motion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English motour, prime mover, from Latin mōtor, from mōtus, past participle of movēre, to move; see meuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin moto ("I set in motion").

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Examples

  • These two gyri, together with the paracentral lobule, were long regarded as constituting the “motor areas” of the hemisphere; but Sherrington and Grunbaum have shown128 that in the chimpanzee the motor area never extends on to the free face of the posterior central gyrus, but occupies the entire length of the anterior central gyrus, and in most cases the greater part or the whole of its width.

    IX. Neurology. 4c. The Fore-brain or Prosencephalon 1918

  • It is evident, from these facts, that the fibers composing the posterior bundles of nerve-roots only transmit sensory impulses, and the filaments composing the anterior nerve-roots only transmit motor impulses; accordingly, they are termed respectively the _sensory_ and the _motor_ nerve-roots.

    The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, 54th ed., One Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Ray Vaughn Pierce 1877

  • Dissenting Justice Harold Melton pointed out that in the state's "chop shop" law, the term motor vehicle includes any devices "which are self-propelled but which are not designed for use upon a highway, including, but not limited to, farm machinery and construction equipment."

    ajc.com - News 2009

  • The 95 indicates that this motor is the 95th, and last, in its series of engines.

    Wild Ride 2010

  • The 95 indicates that this motor is the 95th, and last, in its series of engines.

    Wild Ride 2010

  • The 95 indicates that this motor is the 95th, and last, in its series of engines.

    Wild Ride 2010

  • An internal-combustion engine has to build horsepower, whereas an electric motor has the maximum horsepower almost instantly; as long as the power to the motor is already there. —

    Tesla Motors Zaps Another C.E.O. and Lays Off Staff - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • How do you explain what a motor is and make that person understand?

    2007 May « The Paradigm Shift 2007

  • How do you explain what a motor is and make that person understand?

    WSJ Article on plentyoffish. « The Paradigm Shift 2007

  • And it's like I said, it starts to get a little bit close to some of what we call the motor centers.

    CNN Transcript May 20, 2008 2008

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