MOTIF • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Motif

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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.

See images of 'Motif'

Etymology of 'Motif'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Motif" Quotes from Famous Books

... terre, il falloit gouverner vers le sud-ouest." L'inspiration d'Alonzo etoit moins mysteriuse qu'elle peut le paraitre au premier abord. Pinzon avoit vu dans la soiree passer des perroquets, et il savoit que ces oiseaux n'alloient pas sans motif du cote du sud. Jamais vol d'oiseau n'a ...

— The Conquest of Canada (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Warburton

... Shiraz, rose, gold, and that rare old Persian blue. To mention symbols for a moment, apropos of our archaeological readings together, Boots has an antique Asia Minor rug in which I discovered not only the Swastika, but also a fire-altar, a Rhodian lily border, and a Mongolian motif which appears to resemble the cloud-band. It was quite an Anatshair jumble in fact, very characteristic. We must capture Nina some day and she and you and I will pay a visit to Boots's rugs and study these old dyes and mystic symbols ...

— The Younger Set • Robert W. Chambers

... never completely one." Something drove him to write, perhaps one of those shapeless hungers—a need for self-expression? a wish to find a more authentic kind of experience?—that would become a recurrent motif in his fiction. ...

— Winesburg, Ohio • Sherwood Anderson

... sufficient to say that fine Point d'Angleterre is simply Brussels of the best period when the glorious Renaissance was at its height. It is absolutely indistinguishable from Brussels of the same period. The specimen lappet, illustrated, shows the "figure" motif which appears in "Point de France" and the old "Venetian Point," and which at once ...

— Chats on Old Lace and Needlework • Emily Leigh Lowes

... no physical decay. The singing planets of the human body merely part to combine in other songs, recurring again in the end to their old disposal and song, exchanging other worlds for their own once more, and recurring to the first motif of the symphony. I was sad this afternoon for the will failed me in my work. Sitting on the sand this morning the singing dunes had attained to the harmony of silence. All at once a little wisp of seaweed—hardly more than a thread—started to beat ...

— The Forgotten Threshold • Arthur Middleton

More quotes...