vacillate
verb (used without object)
to waver in mind or opinion; be indecisive or irresolute.
vacillates
-
present tense formof vacillate (3rd person singular).present tense
Used to describe things happening now or regularly.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It is closer to music than epic, a mesmerizing suite of songs that conveys Tennyson’s private sorrow as he vacillates from unbearable agony to precarious hope.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
Driven by a dark kineticism, it vacillates between contempt and gratitude at a velocity that catches my husband, my therapist, even me off-guard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
He apparently vacillates between moments of sleeping with his mouth open in a sign of utter disinterest and being jolted to stare menacingly at witnesses, the judge and other people in the courtroom.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2024
As the score vacillates between rhythmic, melodic passages and warped dissonance, they look at times like they’re trying to worm their way out of their bodies.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
For the hero of Promethidenlos vacillates between poetry and sculpture, but is able to give himself freely to neither art because of his overwhelming sense of social injustice and human suffering.
From The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I by Gerhart Hauptmann
