motion Hear it!

motion Definition

mo·tion (mō′s̸hən)

noun

  1. the act or process of moving; passage of a body from one place to another; movement
  2. the act of moving the body or any of its parts
  3. a meaningful movement of the hand, eyes, etc.; gesture
  4. Rare the ability to move
  5. an impulse; inclination of one's own motion
  6. a proposal; suggestion; esp. a proposal formally made in an assembly or meeting
  7. Law an application to a court for a ruling, order, etc.
  8. Mech. a combination of moving parts; mechanism
  9. Music melodic progression, as a change from one pitch to another in a voice part

Etymology: ME mocioun < L motio (gen. motionis), a moving < motus, pp. of movere, move

intransitive verb

to make a meaningful movement of the hand, head, etc.; gesture

transitive verb

to direct or command by a meaningful gesture

motion Related Forms

mo′·tional adjective mo′·tion·less adjective mo′·tion·lessly adverb mo′·tion·less·ness noun

motion Idioms

go through the motions

to do something from habit or according to formalities, but without enthusiasm, personal involvement, etc.

in motion

moving; traveling or in operation

motion Synonyms

motion

n.

  1. A movement

    change, act, action; see movement 2.

  2. The state of moving

    passage, translating, changing; see movement 1.

  3. An act formally proposed

    proposal, suggestion, consideration, proposition; see plan 2.

motion Law Definition

n

  1. In litigation, a formal request, usually in writing, to a court for specified relief, under applicable procedural rules.
  2. In a legislature or other deliberative body, a request for procedural relief made by a member to the chairman or the body at large, under Robert’s Rules of Order or other applicable procedural rules.

motion Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • jiggle: Multi-colored ribbons encourage exploration, and a pull on the Whoozit character activates an exciting jiggling motion.
  • propose: Proposed motion for a second round of speeches: Motion fails almost unanimously.
  • submit: Motions submitted by a Member Club shall be signed by at least two officers of the same club.
  • oppose: However the government opposed the motion which failed to gain sufficient support.

Preposition: for

adjournment: Wednesday 14 December A debate on European affairs on a motion for the Adjournment of the House.

Adjective modifier

  • slow: They're not just ' cheesy ' slow motion to music which drags on for ages.
  • circular: Starting at the outside rim, squeeze thin lines of white chocolate in a circular motion across the top of the cake.
  • planetary: The main purpose of Book I is to explain Keplers laws of planetary motion, so lets remind ourselves of these.
  • perpetual: He accidentally leaves his car keys behind but one wonders whether a car would have been much use to this man of perpetual motion.
  • procedural: MC: We must now vote on the procedural motion.
  • rotary: The tool can be operated by both handles ( or by the top handle alone ), using a rotary motion.

Modifies a noun

  • sickness: Motion sickness provides a unique setting for the study of nausea.
  • sensor: A powerful motion sensor triggers brilliant color changes every time a pedestrian walks by.
  • picture: I wanted a more abstracted motion picture image of humans.
  • capture: We will show how motion capture is done using state of the art virtual reality equipment.
  • detector: Motion detectors are the more recent model of " switch on & go " machines, which first appeared in the early 1980's.
  • estimation: The search range of the motion estimation is set to ± 8 pixels for both layers.

Noun used with modifier

  • early-day: Members who signed my early-day motion on testing for deafness in babies.
  • dislocation: At higher temperatures ( 300 °C ) pile up around the indent is observed with deformation occurring predominantly by dislocation motion.
  • bowel: Inorganic iron supplements can cause dark brown to black bowel motions.