Definition of motif in English:

motif

noun məʊˈtiːfmoʊˈtif

1A decorative image or design, especially a repeated one forming a pattern.
the colourful hand-painted motifs which adorn narrowboats
运河船上色彩鲜艳的手绘装饰图案。
Example sentencesExamples
- She uses a lot of wonderful patterns and motifs.
- Walking into the lobby, one is met with a mixture of Moorish fittings and Victorian interior design; the square pillars are adorned with Baroque motifs.
- His recent paintings are not abstract evolutions of ancestral designs but oversized traditional motifs inscribed on a simplified ground.
- It is decorated with motifs designed by local school children.
- Unlike the ceramics produced in other parts of the country, the ceramics from Sitiwinangun are rich in embossed decorations with various floral and plant motifs.
- Her geometric paintings of the '60s and '80s, based on patterns and structured motifs, owe much to her background in textiles.
- Crafted in gold or silver, medals were adorned with decorative motifs and appropriate inscriptions engraved by hand.
- Some critics have suggested a direct connection between the traditional design motifs found in West African art forms and those of slave-descended Southern blacks.
- Using cracked linen as a surface, she painted motifs that conjure up images of Italian frescoes and simulate the effects of time and weather.
- Stencils are available in a variety of motifs and designs from art and crafts supply stores.
- It is said that there are over 3,000 batik designs that include Indian, Chinese and Buddhist patterns including indigenous motifs of local fruits and flowers.
- Some of these he roughly painted over with fish or flower motifs based upon traditional designs.
- Included are geometrics, florals and foliates, animals and nature motifs and other decorative repeat patterns.
- Their wood was carved with geometric patterns, especially a spiral motif (symbolising ‘mother earth’) similar to that on Georgian coins.
- Its most characteristic theme was the use of sinuous asymmetrical lines based on plant forms; flower, leaf, and tendril motifs are common features, as are female figures with abundant flowing hair.
- The patterns and motifs are highly complex, ranging from starbursts and amoebic shapes to flowers and birds.
- Particular attention was given to design motifs that were found in several art forms (pottery, architecture, textiles and so on).
- Some decorative motifs were redrawn by the teacher to emphasize the kinds of decorative motifs typical of these different cultures.
- The design thus recalls interpenetrating circles as visual motifs found in his decorative work after 1910.
- In addition to church furnishings and tombs, he specialized in the design of ornamental motifs, which he popularized in a series of engravings, 1548-77.
- If you are a very classic dresser, I wouldn't recommend ties with motifs of animals or cartoons because they would probably come off as tacky and unattractive.
Synonyms
design, pattern, decoration, figure, shape, logo, monogram, device, emblem, ornament
1. 1.1 A decorative device applied to a garment or textile.
  floral or other motifs are then appliquéd to net veils
  Example sentencesExamples
  As head of the Embroidery Department she achieved international recognition for her designs, patterns and motifs particularly in Germany and Austria.
  The man also wears a dark baseball cap with a motif on the front, light brown boots, and carries a dark coloured rucksack on his back.
  Satin mini-skirts abound in a range of wild colors, some embroidered with floral motifs.
  Steamers are also found as a decorative motif on embroidered silk textiles.
  He was wearing a light grey hooded top with a sports motif on the front and light grey bottoms.
  You can cool off with fabrics that range from simple soft cottons with woven borders to hand-crushed silks with delicate embroidered motifs scattered all over the garment.
  According to Galia Dicheva, spokesperson for the royal family, the bride will stick to the Bulgarian traditional-style gown with some folklore motifs on her dress.
  She was wearing black jeans, a red jumper with a lion motif and a black bodywarmer when she disappeared.
  The decorative embroidery motifs are typical of the period and include a castle, insects and large-scale floral designs probably derived from printed patterns.
  The business, based in Great Horton, was founded more than 150 years ago and specialises in the manufacture of jacquard machines, which are used to embroider names, motifs and symbols on to textiles.
  Several days were then spent learning how to sew the porcupine quills into decorative motifs on the clothing and attaching the silverberry seeds to the fringes.
  He was last seen wearing a baseball cap with a crocodile motif, a black sweatshirt and dark blue jeans.
  The motif (golf, surf) can be customized to suit the distributor's customer.
  Synonyms
  emblem, symbol, logo, badge, stamp, trademark, crest, insignia, coat of arms, escutcheon, seal, mark, figure, design, rune, logotype, logogram, monogram, hallmark, tag, motto, token, colophon, ideogram
2A dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work.
superstition is a recurring motif in the book
Example sentencesExamples
- Their elaborate dance of courtship, which cannot call itself by that name, is the film's central motif.
- Together they reveal his visual language and the motifs that recur throughout his work.
- Hawthorne uses several motifs to express a recurring idea throughout the novel.
- The motif of the globe recurs in other works by Georgiades.
- The Dance of Death, which portrayed men and women of all classes dancing with a skeleton, became a popular artistic motif.
- Themes and motifs interweave and recur, circling around each other, acquiring new associations with each repetition.
- Chapter 1 introduces a series of motifs that recur in subsequent chapters and carry similar associations with them.
- This distinctively narrative work presents a host of motifs that recur throughout Schreuders' printed works, including mermaids and sculpted figures.
- One of Hitchcock's recurring motifs concerns a woman who suspects a loved one of being a monster.
- Multi-faceted, open-ended and provocative, this is a film whose many parallel scenes, recurring motifs and curious ironies offer plenty of fuel for thought.
- Obsession and addiction are recurring motifs, along with violent sex and occasional acts of extreme cruelty.
- Norman is far from cannibalizing his own writing, and there is nothing wrong with recurring motifs and characters that stretch from one work to the next.
- She is currently at work on a book studying the sovereignty motif in Heaney's verse.
- There may not be a metanarrative to this book, but certain repetitive motifs are discernible no matter how he retells human history.
- The relationship between land, landscape, and technological progress has always been a dominant motif in the American experience and its telling.
- A first group explores central themes in more than one of Roth's novels while others devote themselves to one text and the author's sophisticated presentation of themes and motifs.
- In similar fashion he attributed other thematic resemblances between New Comedy and Sanskrit plays to the presence of universal themes and motifs.
- The first four episodes build in mystery as we try to piece together recurring motifs of corpses, shared food, reversals of power.
- There is no attempt to create a genre with recurring motifs like, for example, chick lit's shoes, sex, and Chardonnay.
- Horses are one of the recurring motifs in Yeats's art, symbolic of loyalty, intelligence and the unbridled freedom of his early childhood.
- Those names, like everything in the book, echo the motif of hunger.
Synonyms
theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope
1. 2.1Music A leitmotif or figure.
  〔乐〕乐旨，动机（见FIGURE 义项4）
  in this opera, Verdi used identifying motifs
  See figure (sense 5 of the noun)
  Example sentencesExamples
  Counterpoint and repetition of motifs provide cohesiveness and musical logic.
  The work moves between quiet repetitive phrases for prepared piano and percussion to busy, Gamelan-like motifs for piano and digital synthesizer.
  His operas reveal careful dramatic planning, and his use of recurring themes and motifs frequently creates conceptual and musical unity within a work.
  The arrangements are intelligent without being fussy: tuneful refrains for cello and woodwind, beguiling motifs for piano and vibes, emotional guitar and restrained drums.
  Musicologists know that Stravinsky mined collections of Russian folk music for motifs.
  Synonyms
  theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope
3Biochemistry
A distinctive sequence on a protein or DNA, having a three-dimensional structure that allows binding interactions to occur.
〔生化〕特征序列
Example sentencesExamples
- Each of the five proteins contains all four motifs, organized in the same order in the linear sequence.
- In principle, therefore, comparison of different haplotypes should permit the identification of sequence motifs that determine haplotype specificity.
- Consequently, particular sets of correlated peptides serve to define particular sets of homologous protein motifs within the data set.
- Specifically, we defined two small but functionally important structural motifs within the Rux protein.
- Early on, clustering was used to detect common three-dimensional structural motifs in proteins.
- In the absence of sequence motifs and proteins capable of directing transcription, the protein it encodes will remain invisible to selection.

Origin

Mid 19th century: from French.

Rhymes

aperitif, beef, belief, brief, chief, enfeoff, fief, grief, interleaf, leaf, Leif, lief, Mazar-e-Sharif, misbelief, naif, O'Keeffe, reef, seif, Sharif, sheaf, shereef, sportif, Tenerife, thief

Definition of motif in US English:

motif

nounmoʊˈtifmōˈtēf

1A decorative design or pattern.
装饰性图案
T-shirts featuring spiral motifs
Example sentencesExamples
- It is decorated with motifs designed by local school children.
- Its most characteristic theme was the use of sinuous asymmetrical lines based on plant forms; flower, leaf, and tendril motifs are common features, as are female figures with abundant flowing hair.
- Walking into the lobby, one is met with a mixture of Moorish fittings and Victorian interior design; the square pillars are adorned with Baroque motifs.
- His recent paintings are not abstract evolutions of ancestral designs but oversized traditional motifs inscribed on a simplified ground.
- Their wood was carved with geometric patterns, especially a spiral motif (symbolising ‘mother earth’) similar to that on Georgian coins.
- Included are geometrics, florals and foliates, animals and nature motifs and other decorative repeat patterns.
- Her geometric paintings of the '60s and '80s, based on patterns and structured motifs, owe much to her background in textiles.
- Crafted in gold or silver, medals were adorned with decorative motifs and appropriate inscriptions engraved by hand.
- Stencils are available in a variety of motifs and designs from art and crafts supply stores.
- The patterns and motifs are highly complex, ranging from starbursts and amoebic shapes to flowers and birds.
- Some of these he roughly painted over with fish or flower motifs based upon traditional designs.
- Particular attention was given to design motifs that were found in several art forms (pottery, architecture, textiles and so on).
- Unlike the ceramics produced in other parts of the country, the ceramics from Sitiwinangun are rich in embossed decorations with various floral and plant motifs.
- Some decorative motifs were redrawn by the teacher to emphasize the kinds of decorative motifs typical of these different cultures.
- It is said that there are over 3,000 batik designs that include Indian, Chinese and Buddhist patterns including indigenous motifs of local fruits and flowers.
- If you are a very classic dresser, I wouldn't recommend ties with motifs of animals or cartoons because they would probably come off as tacky and unattractive.
- The design thus recalls interpenetrating circles as visual motifs found in his decorative work after 1910.
- Some critics have suggested a direct connection between the traditional design motifs found in West African art forms and those of slave-descended Southern blacks.
- In addition to church furnishings and tombs, he specialized in the design of ornamental motifs, which he popularized in a series of engravings, 1548-77.
- She uses a lot of wonderful patterns and motifs.
- Using cracked linen as a surface, she painted motifs that conjure up images of Italian frescoes and simulate the effects of time and weather.
Synonyms
design, pattern, decoration, figure, shape, logo, monogram, device, emblem, ornament
1. 1.1 A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.
  （文艺作品的）特色；中心思想，主线
  the nautical motif of his latest novel
  Example sentencesExamples
  Norman is far from cannibalizing his own writing, and there is nothing wrong with recurring motifs and characters that stretch from one work to the next.
  Horses are one of the recurring motifs in Yeats's art, symbolic of loyalty, intelligence and the unbridled freedom of his early childhood.
  The Dance of Death, which portrayed men and women of all classes dancing with a skeleton, became a popular artistic motif.
  Multi-faceted, open-ended and provocative, this is a film whose many parallel scenes, recurring motifs and curious ironies offer plenty of fuel for thought.
  In similar fashion he attributed other thematic resemblances between New Comedy and Sanskrit plays to the presence of universal themes and motifs.
  A first group explores central themes in more than one of Roth's novels while others devote themselves to one text and the author's sophisticated presentation of themes and motifs.
  Together they reveal his visual language and the motifs that recur throughout his work.
  This distinctively narrative work presents a host of motifs that recur throughout Schreuders' printed works, including mermaids and sculpted figures.
  Their elaborate dance of courtship, which cannot call itself by that name, is the film's central motif.
  There may not be a metanarrative to this book, but certain repetitive motifs are discernible no matter how he retells human history.
  She is currently at work on a book studying the sovereignty motif in Heaney's verse.
  The motif of the globe recurs in other works by Georgiades.
  Chapter 1 introduces a series of motifs that recur in subsequent chapters and carry similar associations with them.
  One of Hitchcock's recurring motifs concerns a woman who suspects a loved one of being a monster.
  Those names, like everything in the book, echo the motif of hunger.
  There is no attempt to create a genre with recurring motifs like, for example, chick lit's shoes, sex, and Chardonnay.
  Themes and motifs interweave and recur, circling around each other, acquiring new associations with each repetition.
  Obsession and addiction are recurring motifs, along with violent sex and occasional acts of extreme cruelty.
  The relationship between land, landscape, and technological progress has always been a dominant motif in the American experience and its telling.
  Hawthorne uses several motifs to express a recurring idea throughout the novel.
  The first four episodes build in mystery as we try to piece together recurring motifs of corpses, shared food, reversals of power.
  Synonyms
  theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope
2. 1.2Music A short succession of notes producing a single impression; a brief melodic or rhythmic formula out of which longer passages are developed.
  the motif in the second violin is submerged by the first violin's countermelody
  Example sentencesExamples
  To confuse the matter even more, there are the anthems of different nations that are, in fact, the same, as well as those that have consciously borrowed melodic motifs and phrases from other anthems.
  Could Beethoven have really called to mind this Handel motif when conceiving the final movement of his last quartet?
  The thematic relationship between the first and third movements is subtly fashioned with several recurring motifs.
  Each invention is highly contrapuntal and most are imitative in texture, developing a short melodic motif.
  Simple motifs, gentle, melodic guitar and percussion along with stripped down production give the album a clean, and thankfully uncluttered, sound.
  The ebullient finale bristled with detail, particularly in the two fugal interludes that develop the initial, playful motif into a serious contrapuntal argument.
  Synonyms
  theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope
3. 1.3 An ornament of lace, braid, etc., sewn separately on a garment.
  （衣服）花边，穗带
  Example sentencesExamples
  You can cool off with fabrics that range from simple soft cottons with woven borders to hand-crushed silks with delicate embroidered motifs scattered all over the garment.
  Steamers are also found as a decorative motif on embroidered silk textiles.
  He was wearing a light grey hooded top with a sports motif on the front and light grey bottoms.
  The decorative embroidery motifs are typical of the period and include a castle, insects and large-scale floral designs probably derived from printed patterns.
  He was last seen wearing a baseball cap with a crocodile motif, a black sweatshirt and dark blue jeans.
  Several days were then spent learning how to sew the porcupine quills into decorative motifs on the clothing and attaching the silverberry seeds to the fringes.
  The man also wears a dark baseball cap with a motif on the front, light brown boots, and carries a dark coloured rucksack on his back.
  Satin mini-skirts abound in a range of wild colors, some embroidered with floral motifs.
  As head of the Embroidery Department she achieved international recognition for her designs, patterns and motifs particularly in Germany and Austria.
  The motif (golf, surf) can be customized to suit the distributor's customer.
  The business, based in Great Horton, was founded more than 150 years ago and specialises in the manufacture of jacquard machines, which are used to embroider names, motifs and symbols on to textiles.
  She was wearing black jeans, a red jumper with a lion motif and a black bodywarmer when she disappeared.
  According to Galia Dicheva, spokesperson for the royal family, the bride will stick to the Bulgarian traditional-style gown with some folklore motifs on her dress.
  Synonyms
  emblem, symbol, logo, badge, stamp, trademark, crest, insignia, coat of arms, escutcheon, seal, mark, figure, design, rune, logotype, logogram, monogram, hallmark, tag, motto, token, colophon, ideogram
4. 1.4Biochemistry A distinctive sequence on a protein or DNA, having a three-dimensional structure that allows binding interactions to occur.
  〔生化〕特征序列
  Example sentencesExamples
  Early on, clustering was used to detect common three-dimensional structural motifs in proteins.
  Consequently, particular sets of correlated peptides serve to define particular sets of homologous protein motifs within the data set.
  Specifically, we defined two small but functionally important structural motifs within the Rux protein.
  In the absence of sequence motifs and proteins capable of directing transcription, the protein it encodes will remain invisible to selection.
  Each of the five proteins contains all four motifs, organized in the same order in the linear sequence.
  In principle, therefore, comparison of different haplotypes should permit the identification of sequence motifs that determine haplotype specificity.

Origin

Mid 19th century: from French.

词汇	motif
释义	Definition of motif in English: motif noun məʊˈtiːfmoʊˈtif 1A decorative image or design, especially a repeated one forming a pattern. the colourful hand-painted motifs which adorn narrowboats 运河船上色彩鲜艳的手绘装饰图案。 Example sentencesExamples She uses a lot of wonderful patterns and motifs. Walking into the lobby, one is met with a mixture of Moorish fittings and Victorian interior design; the square pillars are adorned with Baroque motifs. His recent paintings are not abstract evolutions of ancestral designs but oversized traditional motifs inscribed on a simplified ground. It is decorated with motifs designed by local school children. Unlike the ceramics produced in other parts of the country, the ceramics from Sitiwinangun are rich in embossed decorations with various floral and plant motifs. Her geometric paintings of the '60s and '80s, based on patterns and structured motifs, owe much to her background in textiles. Crafted in gold or silver, medals were adorned with decorative motifs and appropriate inscriptions engraved by hand. Some critics have suggested a direct connection between the traditional design motifs found in West African art forms and those of slave-descended Southern blacks. Using cracked linen as a surface, she painted motifs that conjure up images of Italian frescoes and simulate the effects of time and weather. Stencils are available in a variety of motifs and designs from art and crafts supply stores. It is said that there are over 3,000 batik designs that include Indian, Chinese and Buddhist patterns including indigenous motifs of local fruits and flowers. Some of these he roughly painted over with fish or flower motifs based upon traditional designs. Included are geometrics, florals and foliates, animals and nature motifs and other decorative repeat patterns. Their wood was carved with geometric patterns, especially a spiral motif (symbolising ‘mother earth’) similar to that on Georgian coins. Its most characteristic theme was the use of sinuous asymmetrical lines based on plant forms; flower, leaf, and tendril motifs are common features, as are female figures with abundant flowing hair. The patterns and motifs are highly complex, ranging from starbursts and amoebic shapes to flowers and birds. Particular attention was given to design motifs that were found in several art forms (pottery, architecture, textiles and so on). Some decorative motifs were redrawn by the teacher to emphasize the kinds of decorative motifs typical of these different cultures. The design thus recalls interpenetrating circles as visual motifs found in his decorative work after 1910. In addition to church furnishings and tombs, he specialized in the design of ornamental motifs, which he popularized in a series of engravings, 1548-77. If you are a very classic dresser, I wouldn't recommend ties with motifs of animals or cartoons because they would probably come off as tacky and unattractive. Synonyms design, pattern, decoration, figure, shape, logo, monogram, device, emblem, ornament 1.1 A decorative device applied to a garment or textile. floral or other motifs are then appliquéd to net veils Example sentencesExamples As head of the Embroidery Department she achieved international recognition for her designs, patterns and motifs particularly in Germany and Austria. The man also wears a dark baseball cap with a motif on the front, light brown boots, and carries a dark coloured rucksack on his back. Satin mini-skirts abound in a range of wild colors, some embroidered with floral motifs. Steamers are also found as a decorative motif on embroidered silk textiles. He was wearing a light grey hooded top with a sports motif on the front and light grey bottoms. You can cool off with fabrics that range from simple soft cottons with woven borders to hand-crushed silks with delicate embroidered motifs scattered all over the garment. According to Galia Dicheva, spokesperson for the royal family, the bride will stick to the Bulgarian traditional-style gown with some folklore motifs on her dress. She was wearing black jeans, a red jumper with a lion motif and a black bodywarmer when she disappeared. The decorative embroidery motifs are typical of the period and include a castle, insects and large-scale floral designs probably derived from printed patterns. The business, based in Great Horton, was founded more than 150 years ago and specialises in the manufacture of jacquard machines, which are used to embroider names, motifs and symbols on to textiles. Several days were then spent learning how to sew the porcupine quills into decorative motifs on the clothing and attaching the silverberry seeds to the fringes. He was last seen wearing a baseball cap with a crocodile motif, a black sweatshirt and dark blue jeans. The motif (golf, surf) can be customized to suit the distributor's customer. Synonyms emblem, symbol, logo, badge, stamp, trademark, crest, insignia, coat of arms, escutcheon, seal, mark, figure, design, rune, logotype, logogram, monogram, hallmark, tag, motto, token, colophon, ideogram 2A dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work. superstition is a recurring motif in the book Example sentencesExamples Their elaborate dance of courtship, which cannot call itself by that name, is the film's central motif. Together they reveal his visual language and the motifs that recur throughout his work. Hawthorne uses several motifs to express a recurring idea throughout the novel. The motif of the globe recurs in other works by Georgiades. The Dance of Death, which portrayed men and women of all classes dancing with a skeleton, became a popular artistic motif. Themes and motifs interweave and recur, circling around each other, acquiring new associations with each repetition. Chapter 1 introduces a series of motifs that recur in subsequent chapters and carry similar associations with them. This distinctively narrative work presents a host of motifs that recur throughout Schreuders' printed works, including mermaids and sculpted figures. One of Hitchcock's recurring motifs concerns a woman who suspects a loved one of being a monster. Multi-faceted, open-ended and provocative, this is a film whose many parallel scenes, recurring motifs and curious ironies offer plenty of fuel for thought. Obsession and addiction are recurring motifs, along with violent sex and occasional acts of extreme cruelty. Norman is far from cannibalizing his own writing, and there is nothing wrong with recurring motifs and characters that stretch from one work to the next. She is currently at work on a book studying the sovereignty motif in Heaney's verse. There may not be a metanarrative to this book, but certain repetitive motifs are discernible no matter how he retells human history. The relationship between land, landscape, and technological progress has always been a dominant motif in the American experience and its telling. A first group explores central themes in more than one of Roth's novels while others devote themselves to one text and the author's sophisticated presentation of themes and motifs. In similar fashion he attributed other thematic resemblances between New Comedy and Sanskrit plays to the presence of universal themes and motifs. The first four episodes build in mystery as we try to piece together recurring motifs of corpses, shared food, reversals of power. There is no attempt to create a genre with recurring motifs like, for example, chick lit's shoes, sex, and Chardonnay. Horses are one of the recurring motifs in Yeats's art, symbolic of loyalty, intelligence and the unbridled freedom of his early childhood. Those names, like everything in the book, echo the motif of hunger. Synonyms theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope 2.1Music A leitmotif or figure. 〔乐〕乐旨，动机（见FIGURE 义项4） in this opera, Verdi used identifying motifs See figure (sense 5 of the noun) Example sentencesExamples Counterpoint and repetition of motifs provide cohesiveness and musical logic. The work moves between quiet repetitive phrases for prepared piano and percussion to busy, Gamelan-like motifs for piano and digital synthesizer. His operas reveal careful dramatic planning, and his use of recurring themes and motifs frequently creates conceptual and musical unity within a work. The arrangements are intelligent without being fussy: tuneful refrains for cello and woodwind, beguiling motifs for piano and vibes, emotional guitar and restrained drums. Musicologists know that Stravinsky mined collections of Russian folk music for motifs. Synonyms theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope 3Biochemistry A distinctive sequence on a protein or DNA, having a three-dimensional structure that allows binding interactions to occur. 〔生化〕特征序列 Example sentencesExamples Each of the five proteins contains all four motifs, organized in the same order in the linear sequence. In principle, therefore, comparison of different haplotypes should permit the identification of sequence motifs that determine haplotype specificity. Consequently, particular sets of correlated peptides serve to define particular sets of homologous protein motifs within the data set. Specifically, we defined two small but functionally important structural motifs within the Rux protein. Early on, clustering was used to detect common three-dimensional structural motifs in proteins. In the absence of sequence motifs and proteins capable of directing transcription, the protein it encodes will remain invisible to selection. Origin Mid 19th century: from French. Rhymes aperitif, beef, belief, brief, chief, enfeoff, fief, grief, interleaf, leaf, Leif, lief, Mazar-e-Sharif, misbelief, naif, O'Keeffe, reef, seif, Sharif, sheaf, shereef, sportif, Tenerife, thief Definition of motif in US English: motif nounmoʊˈtifmōˈtēf 1A decorative design or pattern. 装饰性图案 T-shirts featuring spiral motifs Example sentencesExamples It is decorated with motifs designed by local school children. Its most characteristic theme was the use of sinuous asymmetrical lines based on plant forms; flower, leaf, and tendril motifs are common features, as are female figures with abundant flowing hair. Walking into the lobby, one is met with a mixture of Moorish fittings and Victorian interior design; the square pillars are adorned with Baroque motifs. His recent paintings are not abstract evolutions of ancestral designs but oversized traditional motifs inscribed on a simplified ground. Their wood was carved with geometric patterns, especially a spiral motif (symbolising ‘mother earth’) similar to that on Georgian coins. Included are geometrics, florals and foliates, animals and nature motifs and other decorative repeat patterns. Her geometric paintings of the '60s and '80s, based on patterns and structured motifs, owe much to her background in textiles. Crafted in gold or silver, medals were adorned with decorative motifs and appropriate inscriptions engraved by hand. Stencils are available in a variety of motifs and designs from art and crafts supply stores. The patterns and motifs are highly complex, ranging from starbursts and amoebic shapes to flowers and birds. Some of these he roughly painted over with fish or flower motifs based upon traditional designs. Particular attention was given to design motifs that were found in several art forms (pottery, architecture, textiles and so on). Unlike the ceramics produced in other parts of the country, the ceramics from Sitiwinangun are rich in embossed decorations with various floral and plant motifs. Some decorative motifs were redrawn by the teacher to emphasize the kinds of decorative motifs typical of these different cultures. It is said that there are over 3,000 batik designs that include Indian, Chinese and Buddhist patterns including indigenous motifs of local fruits and flowers. If you are a very classic dresser, I wouldn't recommend ties with motifs of animals or cartoons because they would probably come off as tacky and unattractive. The design thus recalls interpenetrating circles as visual motifs found in his decorative work after 1910. Some critics have suggested a direct connection between the traditional design motifs found in West African art forms and those of slave-descended Southern blacks. In addition to church furnishings and tombs, he specialized in the design of ornamental motifs, which he popularized in a series of engravings, 1548-77. She uses a lot of wonderful patterns and motifs. Using cracked linen as a surface, she painted motifs that conjure up images of Italian frescoes and simulate the effects of time and weather. Synonyms design, pattern, decoration, figure, shape, logo, monogram, device, emblem, ornament 1.1 A distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition. （文艺作品的）特色；中心思想，主线 the nautical motif of his latest novel Example sentencesExamples Norman is far from cannibalizing his own writing, and there is nothing wrong with recurring motifs and characters that stretch from one work to the next. Horses are one of the recurring motifs in Yeats's art, symbolic of loyalty, intelligence and the unbridled freedom of his early childhood. The Dance of Death, which portrayed men and women of all classes dancing with a skeleton, became a popular artistic motif. Multi-faceted, open-ended and provocative, this is a film whose many parallel scenes, recurring motifs and curious ironies offer plenty of fuel for thought. In similar fashion he attributed other thematic resemblances between New Comedy and Sanskrit plays to the presence of universal themes and motifs. A first group explores central themes in more than one of Roth's novels while others devote themselves to one text and the author's sophisticated presentation of themes and motifs. Together they reveal his visual language and the motifs that recur throughout his work. This distinctively narrative work presents a host of motifs that recur throughout Schreuders' printed works, including mermaids and sculpted figures. Their elaborate dance of courtship, which cannot call itself by that name, is the film's central motif. There may not be a metanarrative to this book, but certain repetitive motifs are discernible no matter how he retells human history. She is currently at work on a book studying the sovereignty motif in Heaney's verse. The motif of the globe recurs in other works by Georgiades. Chapter 1 introduces a series of motifs that recur in subsequent chapters and carry similar associations with them. One of Hitchcock's recurring motifs concerns a woman who suspects a loved one of being a monster. Those names, like everything in the book, echo the motif of hunger. There is no attempt to create a genre with recurring motifs like, for example, chick lit's shoes, sex, and Chardonnay. Themes and motifs interweave and recur, circling around each other, acquiring new associations with each repetition. Obsession and addiction are recurring motifs, along with violent sex and occasional acts of extreme cruelty. The relationship between land, landscape, and technological progress has always been a dominant motif in the American experience and its telling. Hawthorne uses several motifs to express a recurring idea throughout the novel. The first four episodes build in mystery as we try to piece together recurring motifs of corpses, shared food, reversals of power. Synonyms theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope 1.2Music A short succession of notes producing a single impression; a brief melodic or rhythmic formula out of which longer passages are developed. the motif in the second violin is submerged by the first violin's countermelody Example sentencesExamples To confuse the matter even more, there are the anthems of different nations that are, in fact, the same, as well as those that have consciously borrowed melodic motifs and phrases from other anthems. Could Beethoven have really called to mind this Handel motif when conceiving the final movement of his last quartet? The thematic relationship between the first and third movements is subtly fashioned with several recurring motifs. Each invention is highly contrapuntal and most are imitative in texture, developing a short melodic motif. Simple motifs, gentle, melodic guitar and percussion along with stripped down production give the album a clean, and thankfully uncluttered, sound. The ebullient finale bristled with detail, particularly in the two fugal interludes that develop the initial, playful motif into a serious contrapuntal argument. Synonyms theme, idea, concept, subject, topic, leitmotif, element, motive, trope 1.3 An ornament of lace, braid, etc., sewn separately on a garment. （衣服）花边，穗带 Example sentencesExamples You can cool off with fabrics that range from simple soft cottons with woven borders to hand-crushed silks with delicate embroidered motifs scattered all over the garment. Steamers are also found as a decorative motif on embroidered silk textiles. He was wearing a light grey hooded top with a sports motif on the front and light grey bottoms. The decorative embroidery motifs are typical of the period and include a castle, insects and large-scale floral designs probably derived from printed patterns. He was last seen wearing a baseball cap with a crocodile motif, a black sweatshirt and dark blue jeans. Several days were then spent learning how to sew the porcupine quills into decorative motifs on the clothing and attaching the silverberry seeds to the fringes. The man also wears a dark baseball cap with a motif on the front, light brown boots, and carries a dark coloured rucksack on his back. Satin mini-skirts abound in a range of wild colors, some embroidered with floral motifs. As head of the Embroidery Department she achieved international recognition for her designs, patterns and motifs particularly in Germany and Austria. The motif (golf, surf) can be customized to suit the distributor's customer. The business, based in Great Horton, was founded more than 150 years ago and specialises in the manufacture of jacquard machines, which are used to embroider names, motifs and symbols on to textiles. She was wearing black jeans, a red jumper with a lion motif and a black bodywarmer when she disappeared. According to Galia Dicheva, spokesperson for the royal family, the bride will stick to the Bulgarian traditional-style gown with some folklore motifs on her dress. Synonyms emblem, symbol, logo, badge, stamp, trademark, crest, insignia, coat of arms, escutcheon, seal, mark, figure, design, rune, logotype, logogram, monogram, hallmark, tag, motto, token, colophon, ideogram 1.4Biochemistry A distinctive sequence on a protein or DNA, having a three-dimensional structure that allows binding interactions to occur. 〔生化〕特征序列 Example sentencesExamples Early on, clustering was used to detect common three-dimensional structural motifs in proteins. Consequently, particular sets of correlated peptides serve to define particular sets of homologous protein motifs within the data set. Specifically, we defined two small but functionally important structural motifs within the Rux protein. In the absence of sequence motifs and proteins capable of directing transcription, the protein it encodes will remain invisible to selection. Each of the five proteins contains all four motifs, organized in the same order in the linear sequence. In principle, therefore, comparison of different haplotypes should permit the identification of sequence motifs that determine haplotype specificity. Origin Mid 19th century: from French.
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