vacillation

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   indecision shown by repeatedly changing between opinions, choices, or courses of action

   Months of vacillation ended when the council finally approved the proposal.

2. 2
   noun

   movement back and forth between positions or states

   The instrument recorded a slight vacillation of the needle around its resting point.

From Latin vacillatio ("swaying, wavering"), from vacillare ("to sway, stagger, be irresolute"). The physical image of movement from side to side produced the common figurative sense of indecision.

Topics