(a.) Not fixed or firm; liable to change; unstable; of a changeable mind; not firm in opinion or purpose; inconstant; capricious; as, Fortune's fickle wheel.
Example Sentences:
(1) Light testing equipment is fickle by nature, making such units uncommon.
(2) Over the last five years in particular, the main parties' opinion poll ratings have been strikingly fickle.
(3) This was a risky proposition that depended on the good will of gentrifiers, who are famously fickle.
(4) Vinny's fame was quick, fickle and fizzled out a generation ago, hence leaving him quite literally sleeping in a skip, pickled by booze.
(5) It is also unthinking because it takes little account of the pending impact of the falling terms of trade and the sluggish domestic economy, which is being held back by chronic weakness in consumer sentiment and fickle business conditions.
(6) They were there to record everything from his despair at the fickleness of his recruits, to the distress of his wife Jools at the way the media had invaded their privacy, with scurrilous rumours of infidelity.
(7) Bowie wasn't a traditional pop star, happy to be known for one sound or idea then to be discarded by a fickle public.
(8) Washington has long been a fan of the petro-dollar and Obama is proving another fickle enthusiast, flirting with the industry one moment, even as he snaps at it the next – like the coquettish mistress of an oil tycoon.
(9) Could he build a winner to win over sometimes fickle Miami fans?
(10) Raquel Paiva, professor of communications at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said Brazil was a fickle nation that would probably soon forget this humiliation.
(11) The digital audience is more fickle: we have multiple subscriptions to magazines and newspapers; we leave a spray of comments on different websites.
(12) It is a strange and fickle beast, a flexible friend, dubious and duplicitous, as I was about to find out.
(13) How fickle the rest of the country is to forget its history at the expense of cheaper foreign imports.
(14) These moves are significant because the above list includes some strongly backed National candidates – especially Goold, who led the Headlong company, and Featherstone – but no recent appointee to another theatre could now express interest in Hytner's job without disqualifying themselves because of the appearance of fickleness.
(15) Bernard had become well aware of the fickle ways of Fleet Street and had become canny.
(16) At nearly 50, Ross will need to remain in the public eye lest the fickle world of TV starts to forget about him, but there are other ways of staying noticed in the digital era.
(17) The Scottish National party has repeatedly claimed that English and Welsh politicians would force Scotland to accept cuts or the loss of the Barnett formula if there was a no vote, accusing Westminster parties of being fickle.
(18) While the site is still sizeable it has lost users, business and momentum – extremely dangerous territory for anyone in the fickle internet business.
(19) Given the fickle and hypercritical nature of the group, in conceiving Spamalot Idle had to manage his expectations.
(20) She experienced something that transcended her pretty fickle and changeable musical allegiances.
Mercurial
Definition:
(a.) Having the qualities fabled to belong to the god Mercury; swift; active; sprightly; fickle; volatile; changeable; as, a mercurial youth; a mercurial temperament.
(a.) Having the form or image of Mercury; -- applied to ancient guideposts.
(a.) Of or pertaining to Mercury as the god of trade; hence, money-making; crafty.
(a.) Of or pertaining to, or containing, mercury; as, mercurial preparations, barometer. See Mercury, 2.
(a.) Caused by the use of mercury; as, mercurial sore mouth.
(n.) A person having mercurial qualities.
(n.) A preparation containing mercury.
Example Sentences:
(1) There is a considerably larger variability of the mercury levels in urine than in blood.
(2) Mercury compounds and EDTA were found to be potent inhibitors of proteinase yscJ activity.
(3) The effects of postnatal methyl mercury exposure on the ontogeny of renal and hepatic responsiveness to trophic stimuli were examined.
(4) The fact that it is still used is regrettable yet unavoidable at present, but the average quantity is three times less than the mercury released into the atmosphere by burning the extra coal need to power equivalent incandescent bulbs.
(5) As yet the observations demonstrate that workers exposed in their occupation to heavy metals (cadmium, lead, metalic mercury) and organic solvents should be subjected to special control for detection of renal changes.
(6) Concern about the safety of the patient and dental personnel does exist, however, due to the possibilities of mercury poisoning.
(7) In order to determine the specific action of cadmium on bone metabolism, the effect of cadmium on alkaline phosphatase activity, a marker enzyme of osteoblasts, was compared with that of other divalent heavy metal ions, i.e., zinc, manganese, lead, copper, nickel and mercury (10 microM each), using cloned osteoblast-like cells, MC3T3-E1.
(8) Inorganic mercury as HgSO4 or HgCl2, at dietary levels up to 200 p.p.m.
(9) An analysis of the clinical markers indicated no clear relationship between elevated urinary mercury concentrations and kidney dysfunction.
(10) In vivo the administration of captopril prevented the toxic effects of mercury poisoning on membrane permeability, oxidative phosphorylation and Ca++ homeostasis.
(11) Histological changes were similar in inorganic and methyl mercury treated fish except the higher intensity observed in the latter treatment.
(12) Unlike other eukaryotic enzymes, the plant enzyme showed no activation with organic mercurials and was inhibited by urea and KCl.
(13) Postoperative APR improved to 86.3 millimeters of mercury and ABI to 0.63 (p less than 0.05).
(14) Attempts to induce mercury resistance in the aerobic isolates were successful, but no induction was seen in the anaerobes.
(15) High concentrations of mercury, cadmium, and lead have also been observed in urban soils.
(16) In the presence of peripheral vasodilatation, adequate blood flow can be expected after such bypass grafts at blood pressures as low as 80 millimeters of mercury and hypotension per se does not produce vascular steal.
(17) A transistor radio activated by a mercury switch was used to reinforce head posture in two retarded children with severe cerebral palsy.
(18) This species, therefore, seems to be about twice as sensitive to the neurotoxic properties of methyl mercury salts as the laboratory rat.
(19) Under this condition, MeHg- and Hg(++)-induced increases in fluorescence were associated with depolarization of psi p. A second approach was used to assess changes in psi p. In synaptosomes, the magnitude of the increase in fluorescence resulting from depolarization of psi p with a stimulus of constant intensity is a function of the resting psi p. The fluorescence response to depolarization of synaptosomes previously exposed to either MeHg or Hg++ (1-20 microM each) was reduced in a concentration-dependent manner relative to mercury-free controls.
(20) Of the tubular cell ultrastructures, the lysosome was the most sensitive to mercury, and there was a close relation between the excretion of urinary mercury and the mercury detoxication mechanism of the kidney.