Also 5 -acion. [ad. L. vacillātio, noun of action f. vacillāre VACILLATE v. So F. vacillation (1512), It. vacillazione, Pg. vacillação, Sp. vacilacion.]
1. The action or quality of alternating or wavering in respect of opinion or conduct; hesitation, uncertainty.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), IV. xxx. 80. Tho that ben naturelle of the same countre withouten vacillacion wille done theyr deuoyre.
1623. Cockeram, I. Vacillation, inconstancy, wauering.
a. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth., Hist. Jas. III., Wks. (1711), 40. That the friendship begun might continue without all vacillation.
1697. Burghope, Disc. Relig. Assemb., 101. This vacillation of thoughts is in some the consequent of their very constitution.
1791. Boswell, Johnson (Oxf. ed.), I. 204. Christopher Smart, with whose unhappy vacillation of mind he sincerely sympathised.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. iii. 34. In the vacillation of the disputants, victory hung on the subtilty of an argument.
a. 1853. F. Robertson, Serm., Ser. IV. vii. (1870), 49. There is such an indecision, such a vacillation about the man.
1874. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 3. 365. Elizabeth … screened her … statesmanship under the natural timidity and vacillation of her sex.
b. An instance of this.
1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., I. v. 116. The agents on both sides were shocked at the vacillations of their own Cabinets.
1879. Church, Spenser, 22. When all about her [Elizabeth] were dismayed both at the plan itself and at her vacillations.
2. The action, or an act, of swaying or swinging unsteadily to and fro.
Quot. 1633 is a rendering of St. Augustine, De Rect. Cath Conv., § 5, where the reading vacillationes is doubtful.
1633. Prynne, 1st Pt. Histrio-m., 27. To prohibit the vse of all diabolicall Enterludes, Vacillations, and songs of the Gentiles.
1635. H. Valentine, Sea-Serm., 57. The second effect of a tempest is the vacillation, staggering, and trepidation of their bodies.
1711–2. Derham, Phys.-Theol., V. ii. (1739), II. 667. To keep the Body upright, and prevent its falling, by readily assisting against every Vacillation thereof.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xi. § 5. 220. The bones of the feet … are put in action by every slip or vacillation of the body, and seem to assist in restoring its balance.
1837. Blackw. Mag., XLII. 233. For this cause did the intelligent creature repose (though not indeed without vacillation) on the lower perch.
3. Variation between extremes. rare–1.
1768. Phil. Trans., LVIII. 160. We shall then have … the double menstrual parallax, or vacillation, arising from the whole diameter of the epicycle, 14″.
