movement

Etymology

From Middle English mevement, from Old French movement (modern French mouvement), from movoir + -ment; cf. also Medieval Latin movimentum, from Latin movere (“move”). Doublet of moment and momentum. In this sense, displaced native Old English styring, which led to Modern English stirring. Morphologically move + -ment.

noun

1. Physical motion between points in space.
   I saw a movement in that grass on the hill.
2. (engineering) A system or mechanism for transmitting motion of a definite character, or for transforming motion, such as the wheelwork of a watch.
3. The impression of motion in an artwork, painting, novel etc.
4. A trend in various fields or social categories, a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals
   The labor movement has been struggling in America since the passage of the Taft-Hartley act in 1947.
   During the latter part of Taiwan's authoritarian period, social protest movements arose that complemented the periodic efforts of the political opposition- the dangwai-to open the political system. One of the most prominent movements occurred in the town of Lukang in Changhua County in 1986. 2021, Richard C. Bush, Difficult Choices: Taiwan's Quest for Security and the Good Life, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 274
5. (music) A large division of a larger composition.
   Beethoven's movements
6. (music) Melodic progression, accentual character, tempo or pace.
7. (aviation) An instance of an aircraft taking off or landing.
   Albuquerque International Sunport serviced over 200,000 movements last year.
8. (baseball) The deviation of a pitch from ballistic flight.
   The movement on his cutter was devastating.
9. (bridge) A pattern in which pairs change opponents and boards move from table to table in duplicate bridge.
10. An act of emptying the bowels.
    when after a movement feces are streaked with blood and the patient suffers from sphincter algia, a fissure should be suspected, 1923, Samuel Goodwin Gant, Diseases of the Rectum, Anus, and Colon, Including the Ileocolic Angle, page 47
11. (obsolete) Motion of the mind or feelings; emotion.