motor

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Something, such as a machine or an engine, that produces or imparts motion.
2. n. 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.
3. n. 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).
4. adj. Causing or producing motion: motor power.
5. adj. Driven by or having a motor.
6. adj. Of or for motors or motor vehicles: motor oil.
7. adj. Of, relating to, or designating nerves that carry impulses from the nerve centers to the muscles.
8. adj. Involving or relating to movements of the muscles: motor coordination; a motor reflex.
9. v. To drive or travel in a motor vehicle.
10. v. To carry by motor vehicle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who or that which imparts motion; a source or originator of mechanical power; a moving power, as water, steam, etc.
2. n. Specifically.
3. n. In mathematics, an operator or a quantity which represents the displacement of a rigid body. It involves the designation of a particular line in space, and the association with it of a length and an angle.
4. n. In machinery, a prime mover; a contrivance for developing and applying mechanically some natural force, as heat, pressure, weight, the tide, or the wind; a machine which transforms the energy of water, steam, or electricity into mechanical energy: as, an electric motor. See machine, 2.
5. n. In anatomy, specifically, a motor nerve.
6. Giving motion; imparting motion.
7. In physiology, conveying from the center toward the periphery an impulse that results or tends to result in motion, as a nerve: opposed to sensory.
8. Of or pertaining to or acting through the motor nerves or tracts.
9. n. A motor-car.
10. n. In anatomy, specifically, a motor nerve.
11. n. An alternating-current motor in which the wattless current is compensated by a condenser or by auxiliary commutator-brushes; a compensated repulsion-motor.

Wiktionary

1. n. A machine or device that converts any form of energy into mechanical energy, or imparts motion.
2. n. colloquial A motor car, or automobile.
3. n. figuratively A source of power for something, an inspiration, a driving force.
4. adj. biology describing neurons that create the ability to move
5. v. To drive around leisurely in a motorised vehicle.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who, or that which, imparts motion; a source of mechanical power.
2. n. (Mach.) A prime mover; a machine by means of which a source of power, as steam, moving water, electricity, etc., is made available for doing mechanical work.
3. n. archiac Colloq. A motor car; an automobile.
4. adj. Causing or setting up motion; pertaining to organs of motion; -- applied especially in physiology to those nerves or nerve fibers which only convey impressions from a nerve center to muscles, thereby causing motion.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a nonspecific agent that imparts motion
2. v. travel or be transported in a vehicle
3. n. machine that converts other forms of energy into mechanical energy and so imparts motion
4. adj. conveying information to the muscles from the CNS
5. adj. causing or able to cause motion