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Definition of "motor" []

  • 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: "It was a night of lovers. All along the highway ... motors were parked and dim figures were clasped in revery” ( Sinclair Lewis). (noun)
  • Causing or producing motion: motor power. (adjective)
  • Driven by or having a motor. (adjective)

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 "motor" in a sentence
  • "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."
  • "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."
  • "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.""