Adjacent Words

Vacillate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

VAC'ILLATE, v.i. [L. vacillo; Eng. to waggle, a diminutive of wag. See Wag.]
1. To waver; to move one way and the other; to reel or stagger.
2. To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to waver; to be unsteady or inconstant.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action; "He oscillates between accepting the new position and retirement" [syn: hover, vibrate, vacillate, oscillate]
2: move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern; "the line on the monitor vacillated" [syn: fluctuate, vacillate, waver]

Merriam Webster's

intransitive verb (-lated; -lating) Etymology: Latin vacillatus, past participle of vacillare to sway, waver — more at wink Date: 1597 1. a. to sway through lack of equilibrium b. fluctuate, oscillate 2. to waver in mind, will, or feeling ; hesitate in choice of opinions or courses Synonyms: see hesitate • vacillatingly adverb • vacillator noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. 1 fluctuate in opinion or resolution. 2 move from side to side; oscillate, waver. Derivatives: vacillation n. vacillator n. Etymology: L vacillare vacillat- sway

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Vacillate Vac"il*late, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vacillated; p. pr. & vb. n. Vacillating.] [L. vacillare, vacillatum; cf. Skr. va[~n]c.] 1. To move one way and the other; to reel or stagger; to waver. [A spheroid] is always liable to shift and vacillatefrom one axis to another. --Paley. 2. To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver. Syn: See Fluctuate.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(vacillates, vacillating, vacillated) If you vacillate between two alternatives or choices, you keep changing your mind. (FORMAL) She vacillates between men twice her age and men younger than she... We cannot vacillate on the question of the party's leadership. VERB: V between pl-n, V

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. n. 1. Sway, rock, move to and fro, have an unsteady motion, waver. 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.

Moby Thesaurus

alternate, back and fill, bob, bobble, careen, change, changeable, chop and change, coggle, dally, dallying, dangle, demurring, dickey, dillydallying, dither, double-minded, doubtful, doubting, ebb and flow, eccentric, equivocate, erratic, falter, faltering, fickle, fiddle-faddle, flounder, fluctuant, fluctuate, fluctuating, flutter, go through phases, halt, halting, hang in doubt, hem and haw, hesitant, hesitate, hesitating, inconstant, indecisive, insecure, irresolute, librate, lurch, mercurial, nutate, oscillate, oscillating, pendulate, pendulous, pitch, reel, resonate, ring the changes, rock, roll, rootless, seesaw, shake, shaky, shift, shifting, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, shuffle, stagger, stop to consider, swag, sway, swing, teeter, teeter-totter, tentative, tergiversate, think twice, timid, toss, totter, turn, uncertain, unresolved, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, unsure, vacillating, vacillatory, vary, vibrate, volatile, wag, waggle, wave, waver, wavering, wax and wane, weak, weak-kneed, whiffle, wigwag, wobble, wobbly