Vacillation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vacillation \Vac`il*la"tion\, n. [L. vacillatio: cf. F.
     vacillation.]
     1. The act of vacillating; a moving one way and the other; a
        wavering.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              His vacillations, always exhibited most pitiably in
              emergencies.                          --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Unsteadiness of purpose; changeableness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              There is a vacillation, or an alternation of
              knowledge and doubt.                  --Jer. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vacillation
       n 1: indecision in speech or action [syn: {hesitation}, {wavering}]
       2: changing location by moving back and forth [syn: {swing}, {swinging}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  66 Moby Thesaurus words for "vacillation":
     alternation, capriciousness, chance, chanciness, changeableness,
     dallying, demurral, dillydallying, equivocation, erraticism,
     erraticness, fickleness, fluctuation, frequency, frequency band,
     frequency spectrum, harmonic motion, hesitancy, hesitation,
     incalculability, incertitude, indecision, indecisiveness,
     indemonstrability, indeterminacy, indetermination, indeterminism,
     irresolution, libration, luck, nutation, oscillation, pendulation,
     periodicity, randomness, resonance, resonance frequency, seesawing,
     shifting, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, shuffling, suspense,
     suspensefulness, teeter-tottering, teetering, tottering,
     unaccountability, uncertainness, uncertainty,
     uncertainty principle, undecidedness, undeterminedness,
     unforeseeableness, unpredictability, unprovability, unsureness,
     unverifiability, variation, vibrancy, vibratility, vibration,
     vicissitude, wavering, whimsicality, wobbling