Fluctuating

4 definitions found

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

  fluctuating \fluc"tu*at`ing\ adj.
     moving irregularly in an oscillatory manner, especially up
     and down; as, fluctuating prices.
     [WordNet 1.5]

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



  Fluctuate \Fluc"tu*ate\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Fluctuated}; p.
     pr. & vb. n. {Fluctuating}.] [L. fluctuatus, p. p. of
     fluctuare, to wave, fr. fluctus wave, fr. fluere, fluctum, to
     flow. See {Fluent}, and cf. {Flotilla}.]
     1. To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; to
        float backward and forward, as on waves; as, a fluctuating
        field of air. --Blackmore.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To move now in one direction and now in another; to be
        wavering or unsteady; to be irresolute or undetermined; to
        vacillate.
  
     Syn: To waver; vacillate; hesitate; scruple.
  
     Usage: To {Fluctuate}, {Vacillate}, {Waver}. -- Fluctuate is
            applied both to things and persons and denotes that
            they move as they are acted upon. The stocks
            fluctuate; a man fluctuates between conflicting
            influences. Vacillate and waver are applied to persons
            to represent them as acting themselves. A man
            vacillates when he goes backward and forward in his
            opinions and purposes, without any fixity of mind or
            principles. A man wavers when he shrinks back or
            hesitates at the approach of difficulty or danger. One
            who is fluctuating in his feelings is usually
            vacillating in resolve, and wavering in execution.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fluctuating
       adj : having unpredictable ups and downs; "fluctuating prices"

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

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "fluctuating":
     adrift, afloat, alternating, amorphous, broken, capricious,
     careening, catchy, changeable, changeful, choppy, desultory,
     deviable, deviative, disconnected, discontinuous, dizzy, eccentric,
     erratic, fast and loose, fickle, fitful, flickering, flighty,
     flitting, fluctuant, fluctuational, freakish, giddy, guttering,
     halting, harmonic, herky-jerky, heteroclite, immethodical,
     impetuous, impulsive, inconsistent, inconstant, indecisive, infirm,
     intermittent, intermitting, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible,
     jerky, libratory, lurching, mazy, mercurial, moody, nonuniform,
     nutational, oscillating, oscillatory, patchy, pendular,
     pendulating, pendulous, periodic, rambling, resonant, restless,
     rough, roving, scatterbrained, scrappy, shapeless, shifting,
     shifty, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, shuffling, snatchy,
     spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, spastic, spineless, sporadic,
     spotty, staggering, unaccountable, uncertain, uncontrolled,
     undependable, undisciplined, unequal, uneven, unfixed,
     unmethodical, unmetrical, unpredictable, unregular, unreliable,
     unrestrained, unrhythmical, unsettled, unstable, unstable as water,
     unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, unsystematic, vacillating,
     vacillatory, vagrant, variable, veering, vibratile, vibrating,
     vibratory, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, wandering,
     wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, wishy-washy,
     wobbling, wobbly