MOTIF • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Motif

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/moʊtˈif/ Listen

noun

Motif n.

Motive. (archaic)

In literature and the fine arts, a salient feature or element of a composition or work; esp., the theme, or central or dominant feature; specif. (Music), A motive (3). See also leitmotif. "This motif, of old things lost, is a favorite one for the serious ballade." "The design... is... based on the peacock a motif favored by decorative artists of all ages."

(Dressmaking) A decorative appliqué design or figure, as of lace or velvet, used in trimming; also, a repeated design.

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Etymology of 'Motif'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Motif" Quotes from Famous Books

... keyed to a higher strain. Less theatrical than his gifted namesake, not so fluid nor so picturesque, his thought reduced to black and white reads better. What Theodore Parker said can be analyzed, parsed, taken apart. He always had a motif and his verb fetches ...

— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 9 - Subtitle: Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers • Elbert Hubbard

... rest for several hours in the arms of Saint Giangiuseppe, who, on being disturbed by some priestly visitor, exclaimed, "O how I have enjoyed holding the Holy Babe in my arms!" This is an old and favourite motif; it occurs, for example, in the Fioretti of Saint Francis; there are precedents, in fact, ...

— Old Calabria • Norman Douglas

... cure to make an excursion three or four times a week. So that we were all quite unanimous in being grateful to Florence for providing the motive power. Florence, of course, had a motive of her own. She was at that time engaged in educating Captain Ashburnham—oh, of course, quite pour le bon motif! She used to say to Leonora: "I simply can't understand how you can let him live by your side and be so ignorant!" Leonora herself always struck me as being remarkably well educated. At any rate, she knew beforehand all that Florence had to tell her. ...

— The Good Soldier • Ford Madox Ford

... that as only a queer romantic gesture, but with what she said last night, it occurred to him that there was a deeper motif to it all.... She was often in Dublin these days.... ...

— The Wind Bloweth • Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne

... tried (the Valhalla motif). At first it seemed to produce the opposite effect, for the pulse was lowered. Later it rose to a rate double the normal, and the tension was diminished. The impression described by the subject ...

— Complete Hypnotism: Mesmerism, Mind-Reading and Spiritualism • A. Alpheus

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