What's the difference between oscillate and vacillate?

Oscillate


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum; to swing; to sway.
  • (v. i.) To vary or fluctuate between fixed limits; to act or move in a fickle or fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly, back and forth.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is suggested the participation of glycogen (starch) in the self-oscillatory mechanism of the futile cycle formed by the phosphofructokinase and fructose bisphosphatase reactions may give rise to oscillations with the period of 10(3)-10(4) min, which may serve as the basis for the cell clock.
  • (2) By using increased feed-forward gain in a sampled-data control model we simulated the pattern of macrosaccadic oscillation.
  • (3) Indirect blood pressure measurement techniques included automated oscillometry, manual auscultation, visual onset of oscillation (flicker) and return-to-flow methods.
  • (4) In general, oscillations were more apparent at suboptimal concentrations of anti-IgE.
  • (5) The possible mechanisms behind the oscillations are discussed.
  • (6) Under cyclic uptake conditions alveolar gases follow an oscillating time course, because gas concentrations tend to increase during inspiration and to decrease during expiration.
  • (7) It imitates the conventional percussion massage of the thorax by introducing high-frequency gas oscillations (300 impulses per minute) into the tracheobronchial system.
  • (8) sec.-1); b) an enhancement of fast (15-25 Hz) oscillations in the cortical spontaneous electrical activity and weakening and modification of the effects of the blockader of synthesis of MA-alpha-methyl-dioxiphenylalanine.
  • (9) In the spinalized preparation, steady-state and nonsteady-state responses have an equal likelihood of emerging from the initial cycles of a paw-shake response, suggesting that regular coupling of joint oscillations is not planned by pattern-generating networks within lumbosacral segments.
  • (10) The LVOR in the presence of visual targets (VLVOR) was tested by recording human vertical eye and head movements during self-generated vertical linear oscillation (averaging 2.7 Hz at peak excursion of 3.2 cm) while subjects alternately fixated targets at D = 36, 142, and 424 cm.
  • (11) In some bladders the voltage step produced current oscillations similar to those obtained after the epithelium had been challenged with a serosal osmotic step (Gordon, 1988).
  • (12) Intramembrane faces were visualized in the marine dinoflagellate Gonyaulax polyedra by the freeze-fracture technique, in order to test a prediction of a membrane model for circadian oscillations--i.e;, that membrane particle distribution and size change with time in the circadian cycle.
  • (13) Airway closure, as assessed by an alveolar capsule technique during small oscillations in lobar volume, occurred at PL less than or equal to 7.5 cm H2O.
  • (14) To examine the effects of focally cooling three areas (rostral, intermediate, and caudal) of the ventral medullary surface (VMS) on respiratory oscillations in cervical sympathetic and phrenic nerve activity, 12 cats were anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, and artificially ventilated with 7% CO2 in O2.
  • (15) The forced oscillation technique is a noninvasive and effort-independent test to characterize the mechanical impedance of the respiratory system.
  • (16) Two phases were observed: initially, [Ca2+]i is raised in a single rapid transient to a maximum averaging 8.0 microM, and in a second phase TRH causes a series of rapid [Ca2+]i oscillations with maxima around 1.0 microM, which are probably due to the enhanced firing of action potentials.
  • (17) IJPs disrupt the regular pattern of myenteric potential oscillations.
  • (18) The oscillations displayed a period averaging 9 minutes.
  • (19) The effect of the drugs on respiratory resistance (Rrs), measured using a forced oscillation technique, was measured both before and after the inhalation of a dose of capsaicin which caused less than two coughs.
  • (20) However, the magnitude of the pressure oscillation even at tidal volumes four times normal was always significantly below that observed during spontaneous eupnic respiration.

Vacillate


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To move one way and the other; to reel or stagger; to waver.
  • (v. t.) To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Significant associations were found in the relationship of suicide potential to verbal attack by spouse (p = .03), vacillation in the last two weeks (p = .02), and vacillation since the first serious discussion of divorce (p = .02).
  • (2) On reversed sequences they vacillated between reproducing the events as modeled and "correcting" them to canonical order.
  • (3) Culture conditions may provide an environment that permits proliferating glial cells to vacillate in their selection of a specific lineage.
  • (4) Trump had criticised Obama for vacillation and weakness.
  • (5) Relations between the White House and Congress have vacillated between close coordination one moment and leaving the other in the dark the next.
  • (6) Traditionally, NGOs vacillate between guilt and hope in their communications.
  • (7) Stuck between the cultist Friends of Radio 3 and Global Radio’s sprightly three-times-the-size Classic FM, the network vacillates between populist copying and public service broadcasting stodge.
  • (8) When first confronted by Arab political revolutions, Britain vacillated, reluctant to abandon useful and grubby friendship with corrupt regimes.
  • (9) Later she acquiesced in Ronald Reagan's decision to bomb Gaddafi, and famously told George Bush senior not to go wobbly on her as he vacillated over ousting Saddam's forces, which had invaded Kuwait.
  • (10) Chancellor George Osborne has made it even harder for small businesses to compete against multinationals by cutting the corporate tax rate, and presided over a collapse in business investment, particularly in the hugely promising 'green sector', which has suffered hugely from the government's inept vacillating on energy policy.
  • (11) He isn't, as Miliband is accused of being, weak, vacillating, unadventurous and academic.
  • (12) Much of his work in the last half of his life, and much of his continuing happiness, was inspired by Penny the second, whose enormous strengths of decency and determination creatively challenged his own vacillation and reluctance to make moral judgments.
  • (13) As one works through the stressful event, the victim vacillates between intrusion and avoidance, with the magnitude of those oscillations being much stronger at first.
  • (14) Major procedures included object permanence, vacillation, memory for locations and pictures, and reaction to unfamiliar adults and to separation.
  • (15) In Study 2, conducted four-months after Study 1, stable pairs (20 maintained mutual, MM) and vacillating ones (six growing mutual, GM; 11 decayed mutual, DM) were selected.
  • (16) Mitt Romney has expressed qualified concern about climate change over the years, and then vacillated about how much of it is human-caused and whether we should try to do anything about it.
  • (17) In the space of just a few weeks Moscow has been making the weather on the crisis – by seizing the initiative where the US and others have vacillated and failed.
  • (18) The cast of The Five vacillated between feigned solemnity and jocular NFL pregame oafishness.
  • (19) Most patients showed little denial throughout the period of observation, but more vulnerable patients tended to vacillate between denial and acceptance.
  • (20) Gerwig played the vacillating temptress in Hannah Takes the Stairs , the long-distance lover in Nights and Weekends , a jittery scream queen in the Duplass brothers’ Baghead .