Meaning of OSCILLATE
| Pronunciation: | | 'âsu`leyt
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |
- [v] move or swing from side to side regularly; "the needle on the meter was oscillating"
- [v] be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action; "He oscillates between accepting the new position and retirement"
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| | Synonyms: | | hover, vacillate, vibrate, vibrate |
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| | See Also: | | hesitate, hunt, librate, shillyshally, sway, swing, waffle, waver | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Os"cil*late\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Oscillated}; p.
pr. & vb. n. {Oscillating}.] [L. oscillare to swing, fr.
oscillum a swing, a little mask or puppet made to be hung
from trees and swing in the wind, prob. orig., a little
mouth, a dim. from os mouth. See {Oral}, and cf. {Osculate}.]
1. To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum;
to swing; to sway.
2. To vary or fluctuate between fixed limits; to act or move
in a fickle or fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly,
back and forth.
The amount of superior families oscillates rather
than changes, that is, it fluctuates within fixed
limits. --Dc Quincey.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | alternate, back and fill, be here again, bob, bobble, careen, change, circle, coggle, come again, come and go, come around, come round, come round again, come up again, cycle, dangle, dither, ebb and flow, equivocate, flounder, fluctuate, flutter, go through phases, hem and haw, intermit, librate, lurch, nutate, pendulate, pitch, pulsate, pulse, reappear, recur, reel, reoccur, repeat, resonate, return, revolve, ring the changes, rock, roll, roll around, rotate, seesaw, shake, shift, shilly-shally, shuffle, stagger, swag, sway, swing, teeter, teeter-totter, tergiversate, toss, totter, turn, undulate, vacillate, vary, vibrate, wag, waggle, wave, waver, wax and wane, wheel, wheel around, wobble |
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