(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.
(1) Jason Conibear, market analyst at forex specialists, Cambridge Mercantile, argues that Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief, even though US economic growth is slowing: American consumers are getting skittish again, but with the giant economy's output still creeping upwards, politicians and policymakers will find the perfect excuse to do nothing.
(2) Bosnia were dreadfully vulnerable on their left with Lulic often drawn forwards, a situation not helped by the uncharacteristic skittishness of Emir Spahic, the left-sided centre-back, who misplaced a couple of passes in the opening 10 minutes and looked anxious throughout.
(3) Obama, who had been skittish about coming to Copenhagen at all unless it could be cast as a foreign policy success, looked visibly frustrated as he appeared before world leaders.
(4) As Shallow, he “pecks at the lines, nibbles at them like a parrot biting on a nut; for all his age, he darts here and there nimbly enough, even skittishly: forgetting nothing, not even the pleasure of Falstaff’s page, that ‘little tiny thief’.” But if Tynan was enamoured of Olivier, he was also alert to the miniaturist precision of Alec Guinness.
(5) The first episodes show a woman stumbling between responses: refusing punishing treatment that might prolong her life slightly; cartwheeling down corridors; deciding not to tell her family about the diagnosis; flashing her doctor; keeping her juvenile husband at arm's length; and trying desperately, skittishly, to fix her teenage son's brattish behaviour before it's too late.
(6) Cameron Peacock, market analyst at IG Markets, said the financial markets were in "skittish" mood.
(7) Assuming, as still seems likely, that it passes, the odds that the White House will get legislators – who'll already be skittish about how changes to the healthcare system might impact on their re-election chances – to swallow another big pill like that are slim indeed.
(8) For now, it seems the selling is confined to the more skittish market participants, but if the index moves much lower the quiet retreat could turn into an increasingly panicky rout.
(9) Factory's Happy Mondays bound together the exotic new dance rhythms with a groggy Lancastrian verse, and in the movement known as Madchester was born the commercialisation of the abstract, agitating spirit of Factory, and the spirited postmodern skittishness of Wilson.
(10) If they do not assert that clear control, these technology companies risk losing business – not only from skittish consumers, but also from corporate and foreign-government clients.
(11) He learnt the new motions, the vastly swaying skittishness and violence of the revenant rigs.
(12) Matip’s aerial prowess should help improve Liverpool’s ability to defend set-pieces and he is a sound tackler and tidy builder from the back, but what his team need most in the absence of further defensive recruits is an organiser who can somehow instil concentration and calmness into chronically skittish team-mates.
(13) Skittish, exasperating and endearing, yes, but never dull.
(14) Putting in some time behind the till of my family’s shop before Christmas reminded me that the customer is a skittish beast.
(15) I’m not surprised that some [backbenchers] are skittish, because there’s all this stuff in the ether and they don’t have a broad-based package to look at.” Turnbull appeared to step back from the GST proposal during the week, answering questions from Labor on the revenue measure during question time by saying no plans had been finalised.
(16) Speaking at a meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington, Obama warned Republicans against “playing chicken with an $18tn economy” by threatening a shutdown, especially in “skittish” stock market conditions.
(17) His comments are likely to add to the volatility of already skittish markets.
(18) I had been warned that she had been skittish about agreeing to do media interviews, that she was concerned certain boundaries should not be crossed - which put me doubly on my guard.
(19) Zuckerberg himself made clear that he wasn’t going to loosen his reigns on Facebook, reassuring skittish shareholders that he would continue to serve as the company’s CEO “for many, many years to come”.
(20) Gliding was inhibited on very hydrophobic substrata and skittish on very hydrophilic surfaces.