[f. L. fluctuāt- ppl. stem of fluctuāre to undulate, f. fluctus, wave.]
1. intr. To move like a wave or waves, rise and fall in or as in waves; to be tossed up and down on the waves; lit. or with conscious metaphor. Now rare.
1656–81. in Blount, Glossogr.
1659. T. Pecke, Parnassi Puerp., 75.
| I can’t call him Rich, or Poor; whose Estate, | |
| Upon deluding Waters, fluctuate. |
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 128. We were mounted beyond the humble Mists, which we could discern fluctuating against the impenetrable Promontories.
1711. W. King, Rufinus, 98.
| So sounds, so fluctuates, the troubled sea, | |
| As the expiring tempest plows its way. |
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 549, 29 Nov., ¶ 2. As the greatest Part of my Estate has been hitherto of an unsteady and volatile Nature, either tost upon Seas or fluctuating in Funds; it is now fixt and settled in Substantial Acres and Tenements.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Ruined Abbey, 55.
| My pinnace rides in port despoil’d and worn, | |
| Shatter’d by time and storms, but while it shuns | |
| Th’ inequal conflict, and declines the deep, | |
| Sees the strong vessel fluctuate less secure. |
1754. Warburton, Wks. (1811), X. xxxii. 270. Wanting those principles, discoverable only by Revelation, which teaches man’s true end, and which excites his endeavours to the attainment of it, human knowledge only fluctuates in the head, but comes not near the heart, where peace of mind is engendered.
1793. Wordsw. Descr. Sk., Poems (1888), 20/1.
| And oh, fair France! though the traveller sees | |
| Thy three-striped banner fluctuate on the breeze. |
1809. Campbell, Gertrude Wyom., II. xvi.
| Or wild-cane arch high flung o’er gulph profound, | |
| That fluctuates when the storms of El Dorado sound. |
1849. Bryant, The Prairies, 11.
| The clouds | |
| Sweep over with their shadows, and, beneath, | |
| The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye; | |
| Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase | |
| The sunny ridges. |
2. fig. (Now chiefly without allusion to the literal sense.)
a. Of things, conditions, etc.: To vary irregularly, undergo alternating changes in level, position, form, constituent elements, etc.: to be unstable or unsettled.
1655. Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, II. iv. § 8. But not successive [Monarchs] and fixed in a Family, but fluctuating from one Kingdome to another.
1723. J. Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Pref. (1735), xxii. Our Bodies here, (which we are sure are continually fluctuating and changing while we live).
1769. Burke, Late St. Nation, Wks. 1842, I. 83. Average estimates are never just but when the object fluctuates, and no reason can be assigned why it should not continue still to fluctuate.
1779. J. Jay, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), II. 283. The Marine Committee consists of a Delegate from each State. It fluctuates, new members constantly coming in, and old ones going out.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., i. Mr. Nickleby’s income, at the period of his marriage, fluctuated between sixty and eighty pounds per annum.
1866. Crump, Banking, i. 20. In the most enlightened seats of commerce money fluctuates in price like any other article that is in general use, that is influenced by the laws of supply and demand, and those who have any of it can obtain a price according to the market rate.
1874. Deutsch, Rem., 342–3. That one of the first deeds of these Schools must have been the fixing of the Targum, as soon as the fixing of it became indispensable, we may well presume; and as we see the text fluctuating down to the middle of the 2nd century, we must needs assume that the redaction took place as soon afterwards as may reasonably be supposed.
b. Of persons: To pass to and fro, from one opinion, sentiment, or course of conduct, to another; to vacillate, waver.
1634. in Row, The History of the Kirk of Scotland (1842), 378. His Majestie … fluctuating by that occasion betuix love and feare, declared that it was his princely will and pleasure, for reasons knowen to himself, to have that Act suppressed.
1684. T. Hockin, God’s Decrees, 248. Like silly Children … fluctuating in our opinions.
1793. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 132. After fluctuating a long time without any system, we have adopted one that, in my opinion, is completely ruinous.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, v. His features, in repose, had a more firm and manly cast than Catharine had thought, who, having generally seem them fluctuating between shamefacedness and apprehension of her displeasure, had been used to connect with them some idea of imbecility.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. iv. 194. To the east and north-east of the royal dominions lay Lotharingia, the border land, ever fluctuating in its allegiance between the Eastern and Western Kingdoms.
3. trans. a. To throw into fluctuation; to unsettle. b. To throw into a wave-like motion.
1788. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 28 July. The younger sisters are bred rebels too; but the thought of guiding their mother, when such royal distinction was intended her, flattered and fluctuated them.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xcv.
| And suck’d from out the distant gloom | |
| A breeze began to tremble o’er | |
| The large leaves of the sycamore, | |
| And fluctuate all the still perfume. |
