Oscillate
['ɒsɪleɪt] or ['ɑsɪlet]
Definition
(verb.) move or swing from side to side regularly; 'the needle on the meter was oscillating'.
Typed by Adele--From WordNet
Definition
(v. i.) To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum; to swing; to sway.
(v. i.) To vary or fluctuate between fixed limits; to act or move in a fickle or fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly, back and forth.
Inputed by Emilia
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. Swing, vibrate, move to and fro, move backward and forward.
Edited by Alexander
Definition
v.i. to move backwards and forwards like a pendulum: to vary between certain limits.—n. Os′cillancy a swinging condition.—adj. Os′cillāting.—n. Oscillā′tion act of oscillating: a swinging like a pendulum: variation within limits.—adjs. Os′cillātive having a tendency to vibrate; Os′cillātory swinging: moving as a pendulum does.
Edited by Ian
Examples
- One method of producing the same effect is to make the cylinders oscillate on pivots, as contrived by Mr. Murdoch, in the first model steam carriage, made in 1784. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- Have Shares enough to be on Boards of Direction in capital letters, oscillate on mysterious business between London and Paris, and be great. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- The weight will oscillate at a uniform rate, or so many times a minute. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- In 1639 Galileo, then old and blind, dictated to his son one of his books in which he discussed the isochronal properties of oscillating bodies, and their adaptation as time measures. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The impression is made by an oscillating type wheel, to which a variable throw is imparted by the key letters to bring any desired letter into printing position. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- To unite and interlace the fibres the wire cloth belt is given a lateral oscillating or shaking movement, which serves to interlock the fibres. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- My impression is, that I was in a state of confusion about it, and, oscillating between the two points, touched neither. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Meantime Miss Lavinia, oscillating between the kitchen and the opposite room, prepared the dining-table in the latter chamber. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I did so with a lightened heart; but when we last looked back, Mr. Guppy was still oscillating in the same troubled state of mind. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- In one form of this class of machines an oscillating pendulum lever is employed, carrying at its end a revolving cylinder having thirty or more spiral blades. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- When a woman has been seriously wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Typist: Portia