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Definition of "motion" []

  • The act or process of changing position or place. (noun)
  • A meaningful or expressive change in the position of the body or a part of the body; a gesture. (noun)
  • Active operation: set the plan in motion. (noun)
  • The ability or power to move: lost motion in his arm. (noun)
  • The manner in which the body moves, as in walking. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "motion" in a sentence
  • "Another patent in the steam-engine series, taken out in 1784, contained, besides other methods of converting a circular or angular motion into a perpendicular or rectilineal motion, the well-known and much-admired _parallel motion_, and the application of the steam-engine to give motion to wheel-carriages for carrying persons and goods."
  • "The said first Bill, in the body thereof, containeth no new matter, but is precisely the same with the motion before mentioned, and liable to all the objections which lay against the said motion, excepting the following particular, viz. that _by the motion_, actual taxation was to be suspended, so long as America should give as much as the said Parliament might think proper: whereas, _by the proposed"
  • "The physical refutation of the self-existence of the universe is completed by the discovery, _that all the orbs of heaven, as well as the earth, are in motion, and that an orderly and regulated motion_. ["