1. To move one way and the other; to reel or stagger; to waver.
[A spheroid] is always liable to shift and vacillatefrom one axis to another.
Paley. 2. To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver.
Syn. — See Fluctuate.
Vacillating
(Vac"il*la`ting) a. Inclined to fluctuate; wavering. Tennyson. — Vac"il*la`ting*ly, adv.
Vacillation
(Vac`il*la"tion) n. [L. vacillatio: cf. F. vacillation.]
1. The act of vacillating; a moving one way and the other; a wavering.
His vacillations, or an alternation of knowledge and doubt.
Jer. Taylor. Vacillatory
(Vac"il*la*to*ry) a. Inclined to vacillate; wavering; irresolute. Hawthorne.
Vacuate
(Vac"u*ate) v. t. [L. vacuatus, p. p. of vacuare to empty, from vacuus empty. See Vacant.]
To make void, or empty. [R.]
Vacuation
(Vac`u*a"tion) n. The act of emptying; evacuation. [R.]
Vacuist
(Vac"u*ist) n. [Cf. F. vacuiste.] One who holds the doctrine that the space between the bodies
of the universe, or the molecules and atoms of matter., is a vacuum; — opposed to plenist.
Vacuity
(Va*cu"i*ty) n. [L. vacuitas. See Vacuous.]
1. The quality or state of being vacuous, or not filled; emptiness; vacancy; as, vacuity of mind; vacuity of
countenance.
Hunger is such a state of vacuity as to require a fresh supply of aliment.
Arbuthnot. 2. Space unfilled or unoccupied, or occupied with an invisible fluid only; emptiness; void; vacuum.
A vacuity is interspersed among the particles of matter.
Bentley.
God . . . alone can answer all our longings and fill every vacuity of our soul.
Rogers. 3. Want of reality; inanity; nihility. [R.]
Their expectations will meet with vacuity.
Glanvill. Vacuna
(||Va*cu"na) n. [L. vacuus unoccupied.] (Rom. Myth.) The goddess of rural leisure, to whom
the husbandmen sacrificed at the close of the harvest. She was especially honored by the Sabines.
Vacuolated
(Vac"u*o*la`ted) a. (Biol.) Full of vacuoles, or small air cavities; as, vacuolated cells.
Vacuolation
(Vac"u*o*la"tion) n. (Biol.) Formation into, or multiplication of, vacuoles.
Vacuole
(Vac"u*ole) n. [L. vacuus empty: cf. F. vacuole.] (Biol.) A small air cell, or globular space,
in the interior of organic cells, either containing air, or a pellucid watery liquid, or some special chemical
secretions of the cell protoplasm.
Contractile vacuole. (Zoöl.) See under Contractile, and see Illusts. of Infusoria, and Lobosa. —
Food vacuole. (Zoöl.) See under Food, and see Illust. of Infusoria.
