vacillate

You have to see it so many times because you have to vacillate between watching the show and watching the audience.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2024

His leadership skills were lackluster, he was not a charismatic or inspiring speaker, he tended to vacillate in decision-making and he struggled to retain the best staffers.

From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2022

We are a nation traumatized into forgetting, psyches so pulverized by mass death that we vacillate wildly between rage and numbness—waiting until the cycle begins again, so frequent it masquerades as normalcy.

From Slate ● May 25, 2022

The film embraces the idea that identity is dynamic and can vacillate wildly over time.

From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2022

Because of this, he began to seek out new allies and to vacillate with France during the campaign the French undertook in the Kingdom of Naples against the Spaniards besieging Gaeta.

From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

But Bruni easily could have been talking about Sacred Heart Hospital, whose staff vacillates between bridging the compassion gap between medical professionals and patients and managing our expectations.

From Salon ● Feb. 26, 2026

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

She vacillates between optimism and despair over Iran’s future.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 24, 2023

The rhythmic language vacillates widely between insistent pulse and total freedom.

From New York Times ● Jun. 9, 2022

For trembling near me, be it ne'er so high, His fortune vacillates with every breath I draw, and all would crumble at a word, Did I wish loud, what I wish in my heart!

From The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda by Victor Hugo

In the 2000s, the company vacillated between a fashion-forward and a basics-focused approach—neither of which helped sales much.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

And yet, at a 2017 meeting with Xi, Trump vacillated, telling the Chinese leader he could “deal with” the Taiwan issue in “a matter of months,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026

Her parents vacillated between wanting to take a hard line and accommodating Olivia’s apparent limitations for the sake of ease.

From Slate ● Jan. 4, 2025

My emotions vacillated from fury to giddiness to crushing depression on an hourly basis.

From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2023

My love for him vacillated from one entry to another.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

They pose the theory that the stock market is vacillating between thematic momentum and macro conditions.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

Throwing in with the CRM never stopped her from vacillating back and forth between her identities: Jadis and Anne, Alexandria and the authoritarian military.

From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2024

Whereas “The Homecoming” was noted for its claustrophobic machismo, here it’s the women who dominate the proceedings, vacillating between sisterly tenderness and bitter recriminations.

From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2024

We hate vacillating on matters of major consequence.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 14, 2024

Jam could see a whole river of things in his face, currents shifting and swelling, vacillating from grief to fury.

From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi