Meaning & use
motored
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“motored” is a form of “motor”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
verbintransitive
Past tense of motor: traveled in a car or other motor vehicle.
Grammar: No object; often followed by a direction or distance: motored north, motored ten miles.
Patterns
- motored to a place
- motored along a road
- motored north
We motored down the coast for the weekend.
They motored to the village in an old truck.
She motored home after the meeting.
verbintransitive
Past tense of motor: moved steadily and smoothly under power.
Grammar: Often used for boats or machines that keep moving steadily: the boat motored across the lake.
Patterns
- motored across something
- motored slowly
The little boat motored across the bay.
The ferry motored slowly into the harbor.
The machine motored on without stopping.
Word forms
| base form | motor |
|---|---|
| third person singular | motors |
| past tense | motored |
| past participle | motored |
| -ing form | motoring |
Common combinations
- motored along
- We motored along the winding road.
- motored north
- They motored north for the holidays.
- motored to
- He motored to the airport at dawn.
- motored slowly
- The tugboat motored slowly past the pier.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: motored or molded?
motored vs molded
Molded means shaped, while motored means traveled by motor vehicle.
Practice
Choose the sentence that uses motored correctly.
Choose one answer.
Motored is intransitive, so it describes the journey, not the thing being driven: they motored to the lake. The other options wrongly use an object like the car, the engine, or the motor.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “motored”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.