Vacillate
['væsɪleɪt]
Definition
(v. t.) To move one way and the other; to reel or stagger; to waver.
(v. t.) To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver.
Typist: Sam
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. n. [1]. Sway, reel, stagger, rock, move to and fro.[2]. Waver, fluctuate, hesitate, be inconstant, be unsettled, be unsteady, play fast and loose, blow hot and cold, box the compass, run with the hare and hunt with the hound, be a weathercock.
Typist: Patricia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Fluctuate, dubitate, waver, be_unsteady
ANT:Determine, abide, adhere
Inputed by Cole
Definition
v.i. to sway to and fro: to waver: to be unsteady.—adjs. Vac′illant vacillating; Vac′illāting inclined to fluctuate: wavering: unsteady.—adv. Vac′illātingly.—n. Vacillā′tion act of vacillating.—adj. Vac′illātory wavering.
Typed by Kevin
Examples
- A man of my age and experience ought to have known better than to vacillate in this unreasonable manner. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I know of nothing to make me vacillate. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- I drew a touching picture of his vacillating health; I boasted of my own strength. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Yet hitherto our star has been a vacillating and wavering star? Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The poor woman was very vacillating in her repentance. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- My judgment now is that he was vacillating and undecided in his actions. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Its vacillating effulgence seems to say that its state, even like ours upon earth, is wavering and inconstant; it fears, methinks, and it loves. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Raymond had evidently vacillated during his journey, and irresolution was marked in every gesture as we entered Perdita's cottage. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
Editor: Robert