motor

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

• n. Something, such as a machine or an engine, that produces or imparts motion.
• n. 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.
• n. A motor vehicle, especially an automobile: "It was a night of lovers. All along the highway ... motors were parked and dim figures were clasped in revery” ( Sinclair Lewis).
• adj. Causing or producing motion: motor power.
• adj. Driven by or having a motor.
• adj. Of or for motors or motor vehicles: motor oil.
• adj. Of, relating to, or designating nerves that carry impulses from the nerve centers to the muscles.
• adj. Involving or relating to movements of the muscles: motor coordination; a motor reflex.
• intransitive v. To drive or travel in a motor vehicle.
• transitive v. To carry by motor vehicle.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

• adj. 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.
• n. One who, or that which, imparts motion; a source of mechanical power.
• n. 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.
• n. A motor car; an automobile.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

• n. One who or that which imparts motion; a source or originator of mechanical power; a moving power, as water, steam, etc.
• n. Specifically
• n. In mathematics, an operator or a quantity which represents the displacement of a rigid body.
• n. 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.
• n. 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.
• n. A motor-car.
• n. In anatomy, specifically, a motor nerve.
• n. An alternating-current motor in which the wattless current is compensated by a condenser or by auxiliary commutator-brushes; a compensated repulsion-motor.

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

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