VACILLATION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Vacillation

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/vˌæsəlˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Vacillation n.

The act of vacillating; a moving one way and the other; a wavering. "His vacillations, always exhibited most pitiably in emergencies."

Unsteadiness of purpose; changeableness. "There is a vacillation, or an alternation of knowledge and doubt."

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Etymology of 'Vacillation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Vacillation" Quotes from Famous Books

... the missionaries hoped now to have the opportunity of converting all China to Christianity. The T'ai P'ing treated the missionaries well but did not let them operate. After long hesitation and much vacillation, however, the Europeans placed themselves on the side of the Manchus. Not out of any belief that the T'ai P'ing movement was without justification, but because they had concluded treaties with the Manchu government and given loans to it, of which nothing would have remained if ...

— A history of China., [3d ed. rev. and enl.] • Wolfram Eberhard

... possible betrayals, than the miseries he must bring on himself by such a step seemed more unendurable to him than the present evil. The results of confession were not contingent, they were certain; whereas betrayal was not certain. From the near vision of that certainty he fell back on suspense and vacillation with a sense of repose. The disinherited son of a small squire, equally disinclined to dig and to beg, was almost as helpless as an uprooted tree, which, by the favour of earth and sky, has grown to a handsome bulk on the spot ...

— Silas Marner - The Weaver of Raveloe • George Eliot

... Kuyper draws a conventional picture of British policy with regard to the Boers, making it out to be ever greedy of power. The contrary is the truth. A vacillating and timid policy has been England's great mistake in South Africa; it is this very vacillation that has brought ...

— Boer Politics • Yves Guyot

... with every changing wind, McCombs would first accept and then reject the offer of the French post. By his vacillation he prevented the appointment of an Ambassador to France for four months. He had easy access to the President and saw him frequently. As he left the White House after calling on the President one day, ...

— Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him • Joseph P. Tumulty

... an order must be definite and must be the expression of a fixed decision. Ambiguity or vagueness indicates either a vacillation or the inability to ...

— Manual of Military Training - Second, Revised Edition • James A. Moss

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