oscillate

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os|cil|late /'ɒsɪleɪt/ (oscillates oscillating oscillated)
1 [VERB] V
If an object oscillates, it moves repeatedly from one position to another and back again, or keeps getting bigger and smaller. (FORMAL)
I checked to see if the needle indicating volume was oscillating.
● oscillation [N-VAR]
Some oscillation of the fuselage had been noticed on early flights.
2 [VERB] no passive, V, V-ing
If the level or value of something oscillates between one amount and another, it keeps going up and down between the two amounts. (FORMAL)
Oil markets oscillated on the day's reports from Geneva.
...an oscillating signal of microwave frequency.
= fluctuate
● oscillation [N-VAR]
There have always been slight oscillations in world temperature.
3 [VERB] no passive, V between n and n
If you oscillate between two moods, attitudes, or types of behaviour, you keep changing from one to the other and back again. (FORMAL)
The president of the Republic oscillated between a certain audacity and a prudent realism.
● oscillation [N-UNCOUNT]
...that perpetual oscillation between despair and distracted joy.

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