1.
[syn: oscillatory, oscillating]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Oscillating \Os"cil*la`ting\ ([o^]s"s[i^]l*l[=a]`t[i^]ng), a.
That oscillates; vibrating; swinging.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Oscillate \Os"cil*late\ ([o^]s"s[i^]l*l[=a]t), v. i. [imp. & p.
p. Oscillated ([o^]s"s[i^]l*l[=a]`t[e^]d); p. pr. & vb. n.
Oscillating ([o^]s"s[i^]l*l[=a]`t[i^]ng).] [L. oscillare to
swing, fr. oscillum a swing, a little mask or puppet made to
be hung from trees and swing in the wind, prob. orig., a
little mouth, a dim. from os mouth. See Oral, and cf.
Osculate.]
[1913 Webster]
1. To move backward and forward; to vibrate like a pendulum;
to swing; to sway.
[1913 Webster]
2. To vary or fluctuate between fixed limits; to act or move
in a fickle or fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly,
back and forth.
[1913 Webster]
The amount of superior families oscillates rather
than changes, that is, it fluctuates within fixed
limits. --De Quincey.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
oscillating
adj 1: having periodic vibrations [syn: oscillatory,
oscillating]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
21 Moby Thesaurus words for "oscillating":
fluctuant, fluctuating, fluctuational, harmonic, libratory,
nutational, oscillatory, pendular, pendulating, pendulous,
periodic, resonant, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, vacillating,
vacillatory, vibratile, vibrating, vibratory, wavering, wobbly