How to Use vacillation in a Sentence

vacillation

noun
Definition of vacillationnext
Synonyms for vacillationnext
  • The action and space transform to reflect this vacillation, as seen through the lens of John’s production design.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 27 Feb. 2018
  • All the while, Trump forces news outlets to chronicle his vacillations.
    — Callum Borchers, Washington Post, 29 May 2018
  • The team official placed blame for the league's vacillation squarely on Vincent.
    — Dave Clark, The Enquirer, 10 Jan. 2023
  • The big surprise is that China appears to have stepped in to fill the vacuum left by American vacillation in the Middle East.
    — David A. Andelman, CNN, 11 Mar. 2023
  • John Kerry’s vacillations about the Iraq war were frequent enough to fell his presidential hopes.
    — Katy Waldman, Slate Magazine, 26 Apr. 2017
  • The Chinese are said to take the long view of history, unlike their vacillation-prone American rivals.
    — WSJ, 28 Dec. 2021
  • Voters’ vacillation between a long career ahead and the thrill of honoring a career found late in life was evident in the voting results.
    — Leila Cobo, Billboard, 17 Nov. 2022
  • This would require a change in the culture at the Pentagon and Foggy Bottom from one of timidity and vacillation to one of decisiveness and courage—not an easy business.
    — WSJ, 17 Oct. 2021
  • On Wednesday, Rajoy said the time for Puigdemont's vacillation on the independence question was over.
    — Euan McKirdy, CNN, 19 Oct. 2017
  • There were no real jumps or serious dips—just some standard vacillation.
    — Lindsey Lanquist, SELF, 14 June 2018
  • Sheldon called the drop in indicated cases a vacillation in the data and not a result of agency policy to close cases more rapidly.
    — David Jackson, chicagotribune.com, 11 May 2017
  • That has led to some policy vacillations, most damagingly over health care.
    — The Economist, 12 Sep. 2019
  • That's anything but a certainty, though, given Trump's constant vacillations on issues like this.
    — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 20 June 2018
  • However, when her boyfriend breaks things off with her because of her constant vacillations, the rejection sends Juliette into a total tailspin.
    — Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 May 2017
  • Harris’s vacillations seem indicative of the risks for candidates who are looking to match Sanders’s clarity of rhetoric, without a full commitment to substance.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Yorker, 28 June 2019
  • The Biden White House’s spineless vacillation only validates the terrible timelessness of that truth.
    — The Editors, National Review, 3 Nov. 2023
  • The Trump administration’s tilt toward Riyadh and an Israel-Arab détente has been replaced by vacillation.
    — Gerard Baker, WSJ, 10 Jan. 2022
  • Diane and Nick go through wild vacillations in their relationship, from open contempt to a gunshot, through a second honeymoon phase, and finally to a murkier, rockier roller-coaster ride.
    — Michael Ordoña, latimes.com, 1 May 2018
  • The Winter Olympics typically see a bit more ratings vacillation than its summer counterpart.
    — Michael O'Connell, Billboard, 10 Feb. 2018
  • His dialogue is fueled by vacillation, equivocation and contradiction, with sentences that seem to eat their own words.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2018
  • Obama’s vacillation was blamed for Assad’s subsequent use of chemical weapons.
    — David Banks, The Conversation, 26 Nov. 2019
  • After our fleeting brush with normalcy during Omicron’s retreat, another very transmissible new version of the coronavirus is on the rise—and with it, a fresh wave of vacillation between mask-donning and mask-doffing.
    — Yasmin Tayag, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2022
  • Her ability to keep her word flow off-balance matched her vacillation between strength and weakness, happiness and sadness, codependence and independence.
    — Bob Gendron, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2023
  • But if his true preferences are pro-Russian, then his vacillation between following his gut instincts and the wishes of his advisers could be explained by simple indecisiveness.
    — Scott Radnitz, Washington Post, 24 Apr. 2018
  • This vacillation was impossible for Republicans to understand, because many of them had actual desires for what the bill would accomplish.
    — David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 6 Sep. 2017
  • Others think that such vacillations might encode and transmit information.
    — Quanta Magazine, 22 Mar. 2016
  • Education leaders say they were not terribly surprised by the administration’s vacillation, as the 100-day plan was always vague and largely symbolic.
    — Erica L. Green, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Feb. 2021
  • Standard fare for a writer, but the book is undergirded with a humorously adolescent vacillation; Bandini is given to extreme changes in mood on topics ranging from love to Catholicism to prostitution.
    — The Editors, The Atlantic, 22 Dec. 2017
  • The language of vacillation, which dominates the sequence, continually reconstitutes itself from joy to self-reproach, from choice to indecision.
    — Helen Vendler, Harper's magazine, 20 Jan. 2020
  • There’s no ambiguity on this score, simply a vacillation between mostly depicting him as cold-blooded and occasionally tossing in a gesture towards feeling lonely in the suburbs because that’s where this season is set.
    — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 15 Oct. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vacillation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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