WAVERING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Wavering

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/wˈeɪvərɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Waver v. i. (past & past part. wavered; pres. part. wavering)

To play or move to and fro; to move one way and the other; hence, to totter; to reel; to swing; to flutter. "With banners and pennons wavering with the wind." "Thou wouldst waver on one of these trees as a terror to all evil speakers against dignities."

To be unsettled in opinion; to vacillate; to be undetermined; to fluctuate; as, to water in judgment. "Let us hold fast... without wavering." "In feeble hearts, propense enough before To waver, or fall off and join with idols."

Synonyms: To reel; totter; vacillate. See Fluctuate.

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Etymology of 'Wavering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Wavering" Quotes from Famous Books

... to Sierra Leone. Then it was that Elijah Johnson, an emigrant from New York, made himself forever famous in Liberian history by declaring that he would never desert the home he had found after two years' weary quest! His firmness decided the wavering colonists; the agents with a few faint-hearted ones sailed off to America; but the majority remained with their heroic Negro leader. The little band, deserted by their appointed protectors, were soon reduced ...

— History of Liberia - Johns Hopkins University Studies In Historical And Political Science • J.H.T. McPherson

... But, as I had left my coat in camp for the sake of having my limbs free in climbing, I soon was cold. The wind increased in violence, raising the snow in magnificent drifts that were drawn out in the form of wavering banners blowing in the sun. Toward the end of my stay a succession of small clouds struck against the summit rocks like drifting icebergs, darkening the air as they passed, and producing a chill as definite and sudden as if ice-water ...

— Steep Trails • John Muir

... I'll do,' persisted the wavering doubter; 'if you will let this alone, I'll give you one hundred dollars to ...

— Russell H. Conwell • Agnes Rush Burr

... Her story may have interested him at the time, even aroused his sympathies; but, afterwards, it was but natural he should, on returning to his duties, forget about her and her misery. What did she know of him? They had met but once; still her belief in him was strong, though wavering at the same time. Had he not said the unfortunate had a claim on all honorable men, and surely he was a man an unfortunate might apply to, if any man was? Such is the effect of imagination upon all poor mortals; it may be a grand gift, but is ...

— The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 5, Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 5, May, 1886 • Various

... not in the least disturb my equanimity or my allegiance to the great party to which I belonged, and for the success of which I had devoted my life since 1854. I listened with complaisance to the explanations made as to the wavering of the Ohio delegation on the Saturday previous to the nomination, and as to the unexpected action of the New York delegation and the curious reasoning which held them together in the hope that they could persuade ...

— Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet - An Autobiography. • John Sherman

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