Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) That which moves; a mover.

2. (n.) That which incites to action; anything prompting or exciting to choice, or moving the will; cause; reason; inducement; object.

3. (n.) The theme or subject; a leading phrase or passage which is reproduced and varied through the course of a movement; a short figure, or melodic germ, out of which a whole movement is developed. See Leading.

4. (n.) That which produces conception, invention, or creation in the mind of the artist in undertaking his subject; the guiding or controlling idea manifested in a work of art, or any part of one.

5. (a.) Causing motion; having power to move, or tending to move; as, a motive argument; motive power.

6. (v. t.) To prompt or incite by a motive or motives; to move.