motive

1. An idea or communication that makes one want to act, especially from spiritual sources; a divine prompting.
2. An incentive to act in a particular way; a reason or emotion that makes one want to do something; anything that prompts a choice of action.
3. A limb or other bodily organ that can move.
4. Something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

   No-one could understand why she had hidden the shovel; her motives were obscure at best.

5. A motif.
6. A motif; a theme or subject, especially one that is central to the work or often repeated.

   If you listen carefully, you can hear the flutes mimicking the cello motive.

verb

To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.

1. Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move

   a motive argument

2. Relating to motion and/or to its cause