MOTIF • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... annuity of Richard's, and so suffered this seizure on his account. It is a strange combination altogether, and is now more the subject of conversation than any other topic, and it serves me also as one to fill my letter. Si le recit vous ennuye, vous n'ignorez pas le motif que j'ai a vous le faire. I suppose that you are not always at audiences, and that you may like sometimes to know what passes in circles from whence everything of moment is excluded, and where you may be again, ...

— George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life • E. S. Roscoe and Helen Clergue

... the clearing we were treated to a most graceful spectacle, a performance of the Ataboi, a dance descriptive of the growth and blossoming of the alova flower. This was performed by seven beautiful girls to an accompaniment of song and clapping. The plaintive love-motif was unmistakably introduced by a deep-chested dame who played on the bazoola, a primitive instrument fashioned from the stalk of the figwort (Scrophulariaceae). It may interest music lovers to know that the Filbertines employ the diatetic ...

— The Cruise of the Kawa • Walter E. Traprock

... found it hard entirely to expunge. They always felt that they were in the presence of unknown incalculable powers, and that subtle dangers lurked in human achievements and gains. Horace has taken this feeling as the motif of a criticism on man's inventive powers. A voyage of Virgil suggests the reflection that his friend's life would not be exposed to hazards on the high seas if the art of navigation had never been discovered—if man had submissively respected the limits imposed ...

— The Idea of Progress - An Inquiry Into Its Origin And Growth • J. B. Bury

... sujets Bulgares, quelle que soit leur religion, jouiront d'une complete egalite de droits. Ils pourront concourir a tous les emplois publics, fonctions et honneurs, et la difference de croyance ne pourra leur etre opposee comme un motif d'exclusion. ...

— Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question • Lucien Wolf

... the girl sang a song of sunshine dancing on grass, of meadowlarks flinging out their carefree notes of joy. Through it like a golden thread ran for a motif little melodies that had to do with a man who had staggered into Fort Desolation out of the frozen North, sick and starved and perhaps wounded, but still ...

— Man Size • William MacLeod Raine

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