Sample sentences for OSCILLATE

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Definition

move or swing from side to side regularly

or:

waver between conflicting positions or courses of action

The needle on the meter was oscillating.

oscillating = swinging from side to side

He oscillates between playing both sports or just focusing on football.
String theorists believe that all of the different "fundamental" particles of the Standard Model are really just sub-microscopic strings oscillating in different ways.
She brought pillows and blankets in case we got stranded somewhere, an oscillating fan in case she got hot, plus...
Rebecca Skloot -- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

oscillating = swing from side to side regularly

A small fan sat oscillating in the corner.
Nicholas Sparks -- A Walk to Remember

oscillating = regularly sweeping from side to side

I oskillate (mispronounces oscillate) between hope and despair for this world as well, Sam.
Athol Fugard -- Master Harold...and the Boys

oscillate = waver between conflicting emotions or opinions

I have heard that Sanaubar's suggestive stride and oscillating hips sent men to reveries of infidelity.
Khaled Hosseini -- The Kite Runner

oscillating = swinging

Her art oscillates between relatively permanent bronze sculpture and ephemeral sidewalk art.
It oscillates like a guitar string.
Management of the patient requires high frequency oscillatory ventilation.
Always alone, his soul oscillated, first on the side of death, then on the side of life, doggedly.
D.H. Lawrence -- Sons and Lovers
Your poise will be more powerful than any oscillating tendency of mine.
Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The House of the Seven Gables
The needle within her wavered for a moment, burning its oscillating way between two courses: should she say that he would not, and see them kill him?
Ayn Rand -- Atlas Shrugged
The doll's neck oscillated a little, its wooden lower jaw dropped and wavered and a shrill high-pitched woman's voice spoke: 'What is it, John?
Agatha Christie -- Early Cases Of Hercule Poirot
He saw Villiers' eyes widen; the gun shook, its oscillating shadow cast against the wall.
Robert Ludlum -- The Bourne Identity
And farther still, beyond those forests and fields, the bright, oscillating, limitless distance lured one to itself.
Leo Tolstoy -- War and Peace
The oscillatory motion was imparted to this by one tentacle of the handling-machine.
H.G. Wells -- The War of the Worlds
I did so with a lightened heart; but when we last looked back, Mr. Guppy was still oscillating in the same troubled state of mind.
Charles Dickens -- Bleak House
Medical research has determined the periods of oscillation, angles of swing, and radiuses, and speeds of rotation most likely to produce motion sickness.
Annenberg Learner -- Amusement Park Physics

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

The piece of wood, after having disappeared for a moment, came to the surface, and floated about with the oscillation produced by wind and tide.
Jules Verne -- A Journey to the Center of the Earth

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