vacillates

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.

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

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

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

Thus, in such a moment conditions become unsatisfactory, the soldier very quickly feels that the hand that holds him vacillates.

From Battle Studies by Ardant du Picq, Charles Jean Jacques Joseph