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fluctuating manner; to change repeatedly, back and forth. The amount of superior families oscillates rather than changes, that is, it fluctuates within fixed limits. Dc Quincey.

ts collided. Across this space the attraction urges them. They collide, they recoil, they oscillate. Tyndall. No longer rocking and swaying, but clashing and colliding. Carlyle.

he common European sandpiper (Tringoides hypoleucus); -- so called because it continually oscillates its body. Fiddler crab. (Zoöl.) See Fiddler, n., 2.

tail of a fish. -- Fish-tail propeller (Steamship), a propeller with a single blade that oscillates like the tail of a fish when swimming.

face, serving as the axis of motion of a pendulum, scale beam, or other piece required to oscillate with the least possible friction. Knife-edge file. See Illust. of File.

That oscillates; vibrating; swinging. Oscillating engine, a steam engine whose cylinder oscillates on trunnions instead of being permanently fixed in a perpendicular or other direction. Weale.

Fluctuation; variation; change back and forth. His mind oscillated, undoubtedly; but the extreme points of the oscillation were not very remote. Macaulay. Axis of oscillation, Center of oscillation. See under Axis, and Center.

Tending to oscillate; vibratory. [R.] I. Taylor.

A shaft that oscillates on its journals, instead of revolving, -- usually carrying levers by means of which it receives and communicates reciprocating motion, as in the valve gear of some steam engines; -- called also rocker, rocking shaft, and way shaft.

To move to and fro, as a body suspended in the air; to wave; to vibrate; to oscillate. I tried if a pendulum would swing faster, or continue swinging longer, in case of exsuction of the air. Boyle.

lastic rod, or a stretched string, when disturbed from its position of rest; to swing; to oscillate.