fluctuable (fluktuabl)

[ They may have their storms and to ings sometime, partly by innate fluctuancy , as the rollings and tidings of the sea, and partly by outward winds and tempests. Bp. Gauden , Tears of the Church, p. 222. fluctuant (fluk'tu-ant), a. [= F. fluctuant = Sp . Pg . fluctuante = It. fluttuante , fluctuare , flow: see fluctuate .] Moving like a wave; fluctuating; wavering. IMG:content-1543.png:[blocks in formation] fluctuate (fluk'tu-āt), v.; pret. and pp. fluctu ated, ppr. fluctuating. [ It. Auttuare = Sp. Pg. fluctuar = OF. floter, flotter, F. flotter ), waver, rise in waves, move to and fro, float, fluctuate, So sounds, so fluctuates the troubled sea, As the expiring tempest plows its way. King, Ruffin us, or the Favourite. Fair France! though now the traveller sees Thy three-striped banner fluctuate on the breeze. Words worth, Descriptive Sketches. 2. To move or pa backward and forward as if on waves; be wavering or unsteady; rise and fall; change about: as, public opinion often fiue He had by no means undoubting confidence in the fluc tuating resolutions of Leicester, whose mind seemed to him agitated beyond the government of calm reason. Scott , Kenilworth, xxxix. In the first place, though a perpetually changing, he [Sir Robert Peel] was never a vacillating statesman. W. R. Greg, Misc. E ays, 2d ser., p. 234. Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith. Shak., M. of V., iv. 1. As when a sunbeam wavers warm Within the dark and dimpled beck. Tennyson, Miller's Daughter. God offers to every mind its choice between truth and Between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates. Emerson, E ays, 1st ser., p. 310. repose. The bold rocks thrust their black and naked heads above the undulating outline of the mountain-ranges. Cooper , Last of Mohicans, xiv. II. trans. 1. To put into a state of fluctuating or wave-like motion. [Rare.] A breeze began to tremble o'er The large leaves of the sycamore And fluctuate all the still perfume. Tennyson, In Memoriam, xcv. 2. To cause to waver or be undecided. [Rare.] 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. Mme. D'Arblay , Diary, IV. 204. fluctuating (fluk'tu-ā-ting), p. a. Wavering; moving as a wave; rising and falling; moving to and fro; changeable. All those who had speculated on the rise and fall of this fluctuating currency (wampum] found their calling at an end. Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 276. The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuat ing policy which has directed the public councils. D. Webster, Speech, March 10, 1818. The highest poetry deals with thoughts and emotions which inhabit, like rarest sea-mo es, the doubtful limits of that shore between our abiding divine and our fluctu ating human nature. Lowell , Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 251. Fluctuating function, a function which constantly changes its value by a finite quantity for an infinitely small change in the variable, alternately increasing and decreasing without ever being infinite. The name was given by Sir W. R. Hamilton.