Vacillate: meaning, example and synonyms
Vacillatev. To waver between different opinions or courses of action; be indecisive.
Example
The committee vacillated for months between restoring the old bridge and replacing it, and the delay let the structure decay further.
- Part of speech
- verb
- Synonyms
- waver, dither, hesitate, fluctuate
- Antonyms
- decide, commit, resolve
- Memory tip
- Vacillate like a swaying pendulum: back and forth, never settling.
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Check yourself: Vacillate in context
The senator ______ for weeks on the measure, supporting it in one interview and expressing doubts in the next, until her colleagues no longer knew how she would vote.
Answer: vacillated. Shifting between support and doubt is wavering. Augmented, convened and extrapolated don't describe indecision.
Readers grow impatient with the novel's hero, who ______ endlessly between leaving his village and staying to care for his ailing father.
Answer: vacillates. Swinging endlessly between two choices is vacillating. Augments, subverts and presages don't describe indecision between options.