fluctuate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   be unstable

   The stock market fluctuates

2. 2
   verb

   To undulate.

   One of them, at great Expence of Algebra, proves, that the Motes, which in Scotomias, we seem to have in our Eyes, are not real Bodies fluctuating in them.

3. 3
   verb

   To be irresolute; to waver.

   I fluctuated between wishing he was back home and wishing I'd never met him.

4. 4
   verb

   move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern

5. 5
   verb

   cause to fluctuate or move in a wavelike pattern

6. 6
   verb

   To vary irregularly; to swing.

7. 7
   verb

   To cause to vary irregularly.

8. 8
   verb

   To rise and fall as a wave; to be tossed up and down the waves.

Etymology

First attested in the 1630'; borrowed from Latin flūctuātus, perfect passive participle of flūctuō (“(of the sea) to surge, swell; (of man) to waver, fluctuate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix).