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/ˈɑsəlˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Oscillate v. i. (past & past part. oscillated; pres. part. oscillating)

To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum; to swing; to sway.

To vary or fluctuate between fixed limits; to act or move in a fickle or fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly, back and forth. "The amount of superior families oscillates rather than changes, that is, it fluctuates within fixed limits."

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Etymology of 'Oscillate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Oscillate" Quotes from Famous Books

... made between the results of dissection of a very large number of men and of a very large number of gorillas. The anatomy of a type is not the anatomy of an individual; it is a kind of central point around which there oscillate the variations presented by the individuals belonging to the type. So far as this newer method has been applied, it has been found that the variations of the gorilla type frequently, in the case of individual ...

— Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work • P. Chalmers Mitchell

... should at once turn back, and seek some safer place. In all cases the line should separate a little, and not follow in each other's footsteps. The indications of a quicksand are easily recognised. If the surface of the sand begins to oscillate and undulate with a tremulous rocking motion, it is always wise to seek some other passage. Looking back, after elephants have passed, you will often see what was a perfectly dry flat, covered with several inches of water. When water begins to ooze up in ...

— Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier - Twelve Years Sporting Reminiscences of an Indigo Planter • James Inglis

... received does its work in making the electrons in that antenna oscillate back and forth. If the receiving antenna is tuned to the frequency which the sending station is producing, then the electrons in the receiving antenna oscillate back and forth most widely and there is a maximum ...

— Letters of a Radio-Engineer to His Son • John Mills

... again eagerly, fixedly, tremblingly. A wild impulse to summon Barker or Stacy on the spot was restrained with difficulty and only when he remembered that they could not help him. Then he began to oscillate between a joy and a new fear, which now, for the first time, began to dawn upon him. If the news of her death had been a fiendish trick of her relations, why had SHE never sought him? It was not ill health, restraint, nor fear; there was nothing but happiness and the strength of youth and ...

— The Three Partners • Bret Harte

... to the ancient Germans, there certainly was among them one very prevalent form of head, and even the varieties of feature which occur among the Marcomans—for example, on Marcus Aurelius' column—all seem to oscillate round one ...

— Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine • Lewis Spence

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