motor n.
1. a fast, hard-living man-about-town.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
2. a motorcar.
| Daily Tel. 19 Nov. in (1909) 178/1: Byron had shown the true origin of the Motor long before the gentlemen who thought they invented it were born. Did he not say in his famous riddle Twas whispered in Heaven, ’twas Motor’d in Hell. | |
| John Bull’s Other Island Act III: Orse! Wy, you silly aowl rotter, it’s not a orse: it’s a mowtor. | |
| Card (1974) 227: Have you got a motor? | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Gippsland Times (Vic.) 1 Oct. 5/3: I cud go round sellin’ moters, / Sellin’ fishin’ lines an’ floaters, / An’ ‘awkin’ crabs an’ bloaters, / Or th’ gentle bunny rab. | |
| Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 257: He will hire motors, book hotel rooms, enter exclusive clubs. | |
| Mapp and Lucia (1984) 262: I shall get a motor. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Malachi Horan Remembers 49: Mr. Fitzgerald, do I like motors? Do I? [...] Do I like motors indeed! Give me the days of the old coaches. | |
| in Lilliput 1 Feb. in Norman’s London (1969) 78: There I was in this motor getting took back to the manor. | |
| Burden of Proof 42: We’ll have to heist three or four motors. | |
| Villain’s Tale 21: There was a silence in the car for a moment. ‘This is a nice motor, Jack. How long you been running this?’. | |
| (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 75: I’d [...] jump in the motor, and go down to the Grave Maurice. | |
| ‘Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knyght’ in Indep. Weekend Rev. 26 Dec. 1: Thisse is welle bloddie seryious – I’m goner nede a motore. | |
| Layer Cake 1: I parked the motor under a streetlight. | |
| in Jack of Jumps (2007) 60: I told her a motor had been smashed up round my place. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | April Dead 158: ‘Let’s go and look at some posh motors’. |
3. (US) a motorcycle.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | From Here to Eternity (1998) 151: My motor gets more pussy than all the dough in this company. | |
| Up the Junction 91: Lovely motors, these Yanks. |
4. (US gay) the buttocks.
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐. |
5. (N.Z. prison) a prison-made tattoo machine.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 119/1: motor n. a tattoo machine. |
6. (Aus. prison) energy, enthusiasm, committment.
| Intractable [ebook] I respected George’s ambition. It was a tall order; still, if he had the motor to stick it out he just might pull it off. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. (US) a euph. for motherfucker n.; usu. as bad motorcycle.
| [song title] Ridin’ Dirty Motorsickle. | |
| [song title] Bad Motorcycle. | |
| Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 2: bad motorcycle – One who is very sharp, cool, hip and gets what he wants but, this type of cat is also a little tricky. | |
| Soulside 98: [W]e may note the concept of the ‘bad motherfucker’, used more often by men in largely appreciative statements on this kind of counter-mainstream supermasculinity. The emcees at the Howard use a euphemism, the ‘bad motorcycle’). | |
| ‘Bad Motorcycle’ 🎵 Well I got a baby she’s a bad motorcycle / And we ride together on through the night. | |
| 🌐 His first film was 1961’s Angel Baby, playing a bad motorcycle type. |
2. (US black) a woman (who can supposedly be ‘ridden’).
| Mr Jive-Ass Nigger 149: ‘Shit, you should’ve seen that bad motorcycle I had the other night, blonde, green eyes [...] stacked like a sack of flour’. | |
| Juba to Jive. |
see bull n.5 (5)
1. a fool.
 | Wampanaki Tales 111: She...told one of the motorheads to stick his nose in the perfumed slot between her breasts [HDAS]. | |
| Blues Brothers [film script] What the hell do you want me to do, motorhead? |
2. a car or motorcycle enthusiast.
| Campus Sl. Mar. 4: Motorhead — someone who is over-enthusiastic about cars. | |
| Stark Raving Elvis 61: They were scruffy, long-haired ‘motorheads’. | |
| Homicide (1993) 436: Some greasy motorhead [...] is running around South Baltimore in a custom $60,000 Lotus. |
(US) a motorcycle.
| Christine 93: Get on your motorhuckle boots, boys, we got plenty good stompin tonight. |
see separate entries.
(US) a euph. for motherfucker n.
| ‘Alley-Oop’ 🎵 He’s a mean motor scooter and a bad go getter. | |
| Fields of Fire (1980) 25: Snake [...] stared almost enviously at the picture. There’s some mean motorscooters for you. Uh huh. | |
| USMC cadence at USMC Hangout 🌐 Runnin’ through the desert with my M-16 / I’m a mean motor scooter, / I’m a us marine. | |
| Widespread Panic 98: He was one mean motor scooter and bad actor. |