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MOTTO
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Irregular inflected form: mottoes
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A favorite saying of a sect or political group
Synonyms:
catchword; motto; shibboleth; slogan
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("motto" is a kind of...):
expression; locution; saying (a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "motto"):
catch phrase; catchphrase (a phrase that has become a catchword)
mantra (a commonly repeated word or phrase)
battle cry; cry; rallying cry; war cry; watchword (a slogan used to rally support for a cause)
Context examples:
He sprang out as he spoke, and with one leg and a staff he hopped swiftly up the path, and under the laurel-bordered motto, and so over his own threshold for the first time for five years.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then followed the history and rise of the ancient and respectable family, in the usual terms; how it had been first settled in Cheshire; how mentioned in Dugdale, serving the office of high sheriff, representing a borough in three successive parliaments, exertions of loyalty, and dignity of baronet, in the first year of Charles II, with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming altogether two handsome duodecimo pages, and concluding with the arms and motto:—Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset, and Sir Walter's handwriting again in this finale:—Heir presumptive, William Walter Elliot, Esq., great grandson of the second Sir Walter.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
"'Hope and keep busy', that's the motto for us, so let's see who will remember it best. I shall go to Aunt March, as usual. Oh, won't she lecture though!" said Jo, as she sipped with returning spirit.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Away I ran for the motto, and I pinned it up on the bushes as we had agreed, but when I had finished there were the skirts and the feet and the blue arms just the same as before.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
'Charge, Chester, charge!' is the motto for that table, but do your duty like men, and you'll get your money's worth of art in every sense of the word, said the irrepressible Jo, as the devoted phalanx prepared to take the field.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
This hitch in the mainspring of the domestic machinery had a bad effect upon the whole concern, but Amy's motto was 'Nil desperandum', and having made up her mind what to do, she proceeded to do it in spite of all obstacles.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
They had a merry time over the bonbons and mottoes, and were in the midst of a quiet game of Buzz, with two or three other young people who had strayed in, when Hannah appeared.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
