Definition of "oscillate" []

• To swing back and forth with a steady, uninterrupted rhythm. (verb-intransitive)
• To waver, as between conflicting opinions or courses of action; vacillate: "The court has oscillated over the decades from more liberal to less, more conservative to less, depending upon who was president at the time of vacancies” ( Gordon J. Humphrey). See Synonyms at swing. (verb-intransitive)
• Physics To vary between alternate extremes, usually within a definable period of time. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "She was, however, uneasy when she heard the strange whistling sound produced by their irregular passage through the dark night air, and when the violence of their movements made the basin oscillate, she lay down tremblingly at the bottom of her golden basin, and then carefully gathered her garments around her, lest they should come in contact with the dark man."
• "The only place to spot them is in a vacuum, where they should sometimes "oscillate" into normal photons."
• "With HFOV, the lungs are continuously inflated and "oscillate" at a very high rate (600 to"