VACILLATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vacillation mean? 

• VACILLATION (noun)
  The noun VACILLATION has 2 senses:

1. indecision in speech or action

2. changing location by moving back and forth

  Familiarity information: VACILLATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VACILLATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Indecision in speech or action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

hesitation; vacillation; wavering

Hypernyms ("vacillation" is a kind of...):

indecision; indecisiveness; irresolution (doubt concerning two or more possible alternatives or courses of action)

Derivation:

vacillate (be undecided about something; waver between conflicting positions or courses of action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Changing location by moving back and forth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

swing; swinging; vacillation

Hypernyms ("vacillation" is a kind of...):

motion; move; movement (the act of changing location from one place to another)

Derivation:

vacillate (move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern)

 Context examples 

At another time I should have been amused by this; but I felt that we were all constrained and uneasy, and I watched Mr. Micawber so anxiously, in his vacillations between an evident disposition to reveal something, and a counter-disposition to reveal nothing, that I was in a perfect fever.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)