| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈvacillate, ppl. a.
[Cf. next and -ate2.]
Vacillating, unsteady.
1830W. Phillips Mt. Sinai i. 74 With purpose vacillate, and changed resolve, He follow'd Israel.
▪ II. vacillate, v.|ˈvæsɪleɪt|
[f. L. vacillāt-, ppl. stem of vacillāre to sway, stagger, totter, etc., whence also F. vaciller (1314), It. vacillare, Pg. vacillar, Sp. vacilar.]
1. intr. To swing or sway unsteadily; to be in unstable equilibrium; to stagger.
1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. c j b, Those which are too longe doe vacillate, and turne this way and that way in the hand. 1721Bailey, To Vacillate, to..stagger, waggle, or shake. 1757Phil. Trans. L. 505 Whether the earth, during the agitation of the waters, does rock and vacillate,..is what I shall leave to future inquiry. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxii, When a spheroid..turns upon an axis which is not permanent,..it is always liable to shift and vacillate from one axis to another. 1888Stevenson Black Arrow 175 Lawless, vacillating on his feet, and still shouting the chorus of sea-ballads, took the long tiller in his hands.
b. To vary; to hover doubtfully.
1841D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 231 The fate of books vacillates with the fancies of book-lovers. 1873Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (ed. 2) §186 Among the words which still vacillate between the two sounds of EA, is the word break.
c. To fluctuate; to produce varying results.
1835Sir J. Ross Narr. 2nd Voy. xv. 235 In the course of these attempts at discovering and maintaining the best temperature, it [an apparatus for condensing the vapour] was found to vacillate.
2. To alternate or waver between different opinions or courses of action.
1623Cockeram i, Vacillate, to wauer, to be inconstant. 1661R. Burney K. Chas. presented 9 His Majesties wrath..causes the spirit of the ill-affected to vacillate. 1830D'Israeli Chas. I, III. ii. 19 In his last years he stood alone, and never less vacillated in his conduct. 1846Ruskin Mod. Paint. II. iii. iii. §2. 179 note, He may pause, but he must not hesitate,—and tremble, but he must not vacillate. 1891Bp. Creighton in Mrs. Creighton Life (1904) II. i. 22 You can judge if you look within; you vacillate if you look without.
b. Freq. const. between.
1827J. F. Cooper Prairie II. xiii. 217 His looks appeared to be strangely vacillating between hope and fear. 1850McCosh Div. Govt. ii. ii. (1874) 212 The superstitious man vacillates..between hope and fear, between self-confidence and despondency. |