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“vacillate”
oscillate, osculate, vacillate
oscillate (AHS uh layt") (verb)
1. To move like a pendulum that goes back and forth: The fan on the table was set to oscillate in order to keep the air fresh.
2. To vary in feelings, opinions, or actions from one extreme to the other: When Mildred heard the news of the accident, her reactions seemed to oscillate between hope and despair.
3. To move from above to below a mean value: The stock market seemed to oscillate around the 2500 mark.
2. To vary in feelings, opinions, or actions from one extreme to the other: When Mildred heard the news of the accident, her reactions seemed to oscillate between hope and despair.
3. To move from above to below a mean value: The stock market seemed to oscillate around the 2500 mark.
osculate (AHS kyuh layt") (verb)
To use one’s mouth to bestow a kiss: At the end of the wedding ceremony, the couple decided to osculate in front of all their friends.
vacillate (VAS uh layt") (verb)
To fluctuate, to waver, or to hesitate: After the breakup with her boyfriend, Lucinda seemed to vacillate between being very angry and very sad.
Sometimes Mike thinks his kid sister is like a pendulum because she tends to oscillate back and forth in her opinions; for example, Lenora and her husband promised to osculate at the end of their wedding ceremony; then she started to vacillate, thinking to osculate before so many people would be embarrassing.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group O; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 2)
vacillate (VAS uh layt") (verb), vacillates; vacillated; vacillating
1. To be indecisive or to waver, changing between one opinion and another one: Yesterday Hank seemed to be so sure about where he would be going this weekend, but today he is vacillating as to whether he will visit his mother or go to the football game.
2. To be undecided about something; to waver between conflicting positions or courses of action: Susan appeared to be vacillating between eating a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of raspberry strudel.
3. To go back and forth in a confusing manner: It made the clerk at the library frustrated to watch Pete vacillate back and forth between which books he was going check out and which ones he would be leaving there.
4. To move or to sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern: The earthquake caused Christa's house to vacillate back and forth and up and down.
5. Etymology: from Latin vacillationem, "a reeling, a wavering"; from the stem of vacillare, "to sway to and fro".
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2. To be undecided about something; to waver between conflicting positions or courses of action: Susan appeared to be vacillating between eating a piece of chocolate cake or a piece of raspberry strudel.
3. To go back and forth in a confusing manner: It made the clerk at the library frustrated to watch Pete vacillate back and forth between which books he was going check out and which ones he would be leaving there.
4. To move or to sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern: The earthquake caused Christa's house to vacillate back and forth and up and down.
5. Etymology: from Latin vacillationem, "a reeling, a wavering"; from the stem of vacillare, "to sway to and fro".
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This entry is located in the following unit:
vacilla-, vacillat- +
(page 1)
Word Entries at Get Words:
“vacillate”
To waver in mind or feeling when trying to make decisions; or having a hard time in making up one's mind to do something. (3)
This entry is located in the following unit:
Word a Day Revisited Index of Cartoons Illustrating the Meanings of Words
(page 79)