ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ING2.] That fluctuates.
1. Moving as or in waves; irregularly rising and falling.
1712. Sir R. Blackmore, Creation, I. 44.
| The fluctuating Fields of liquid Air, | |
| With all the curious Meteors hov’ring there. |
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. (1790), 266.
| High o’er the poop the audacious seas aspire, | |
| Uproll’d in hills of fluctuating fire. |
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 353. In an erect posture, he is often sensible of a weight upon the diaphragm, with some fluctuating motion of a fluid.
2. Irregularly varying; unsteady; unsettled, wavering.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 49. So fluctuating and unsteady a testimony is the applause of popular councils.
a. 1679. T. Goodwin, Just. Faith, II. II. viii. Leave her to be driven about with the Whirlpools of a fluctuating Conscience.
1720. Welton, Suffer. Son of God, II. xxxi. 799. They knew how Fluctuating the Opinion of the Mobb is.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. 113, note. The doubtful, fluctuating conduct of Vetranio is described by Julian in his first oration.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., 24. She could read aloud and fluently to Maltravers, and copied out his poetry in a small fluctuating hand.
1867. A. Barry, Sir Charles Barry, vii. 249. The fluctuating nature of the attendance.
absol. 1833. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Pop. Fallacies. They [rogues] have pretty sharp distinctions of the fluctuating and the permanent.
