How to Use vacillate in a Sentence

vacillate

verb
  • She has vacillated on this issue.
  • But Putin seemed to vacillate on his own support for Prigozhin.
    Anton Troianovski, BostonGlobe.com, 24 June 2023
  • Yet the coalition vacillated over the plan as soon as it was announced.
    Grant Smith, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2024
  • But Aguilera arrived hours late to court, and began to cry while vacillating over the deal.
    David Ovalle, miamiherald, 19 Jan. 2018
  • The lake of my childhood had always vacillated somewhere between a slate blue and the gray found in the seams of an old tennis ball.
    Robert Moor, New York Times, 23 May 2017
  • The process, at times, has left him vacillating from tears of self-pity to intense anger and severe depression.
    Phil McCausland, NBC News, 6 Aug. 2023
  • The viewer sees the world through Luli's eyes, vacillating between who could be her savior and who's the real villain.
    Kerry Pieri, Harper's BAZAAR, 4 May 2012
  • Investors’ conviction on the move vacillated in the days leading up to the meeting.
    Jeff Cox, CNBC, 18 Sep. 2024
  • With this record, has the idea of expectation changed for you at all in terms of reception or the idea of vacillating between styles or sounds?
    Steven J. Horowitz, Billboard, 11 Dec. 2017
  • All around, neighbors are vacillating on whether to rebuild or move away.
    Lizzie Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Apr. 2018
  • Then there will be players who vacillate about the vaccine, guys like Tampa Bay’s Leonard Fournette.
    Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2021
  • Today, she’s got her heart set on a tissue box, vacillating between sky blue and black.
    Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 2 Apr. 2024
  • Biden’s team has, for months, vacillated between the best message for the candidate.
    Time, 23 Oct. 2019
  • The home quietly vacillates between high-glam and lived-in—a space distinctly her own, designed on her own terms.
    Lucia Tonelli, ELLE Decor, 26 July 2019
  • The caffeine breakdowns can vacillate for other forms of coffee, too.
    Korin Miller, SELF, 6 Mar. 2019
  • Some dedicate half or whole days to each of their primary processes, but the key is to not vacillate back-and-forth between them.
    Tim Maurer, Forbes, 11 Apr. 2021
  • The White House has vacillated in recent days about whether the two countries were holding preparatory talks in advance of the summit.
    Peter Nicholas, WSJ, 25 May 2018
  • Throughout the night, the tone vacillated from celebratory to somber as the celebrities came to terms with their platform.
    Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, 21 May 2018
  • Trump has vacillated over his objectives for the meeting with Kim.
    Matt Stiles, latimes.com, 11 June 2018
  • Whatever the motivation, it's been a long time coming for a team that has been content to spend the first 10 weeks of the season vacillating between kind of good and kind of bad.
    Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com, 17 June 2017
  • But after spending the first six weeks of the season vacillating between good and not so good, the Indians could use a little sizzle.
    Paul Hoynes, cleveland.com, 20 May 2017
  • Berry spends the entirety of the film vacillating between hysterics and hugs.
    Katie Walsh, latimes.com, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Berry spends the whole film vacillating between hysterics and hugs.
    Katie Walsh, kansascity, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Gale-force winds and vacillating currents drove the Hōkūleʻa into its escort boat, leaving a gaping hole in the vessel’s starboard.
    Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017
  • Gale-force winds and vacillating currents drove the Hōkūleʻa into its escort boat, leaving a gaping hole in the vessel’s starboard.
    Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 16 June 2017
  • But on Thursday, House Republicans vacillated on whether a third House speaker vote would be to their taste.
    Geoffrey Skelley, ABC News, 19 Oct. 2023
  • But Fukuyama vacillates throughout on how great a threat aspiring Supermen in the Nietzschean mold might pose to the peace at the end of history.
    Win McCormack, The New Republic, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Trump vacillated for months on whether to pick Shanahan, officials said.
    NBC News, 11 June 2019
  • Sfiha, ground meat blended with pomegranate molasses and a pantry-ful of spices, vacillates brightly between sweet and sour.
    Patricia Escárcega, latimes.com, 5 June 2019
  • His demeanor vacillated between defensive and aggressive, which some saw as a lack of preparation.
    Edward Segal, Forbes, 11 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vacillate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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