First attested in 1726; borrowed from Latin ōscillātus, perfect passive participle of Latin ōscillō (“to swing”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ōscillum (“a swing”), usually identified with ōscillum (“a little face or mask hung on a tree that sways with the wind”), diminutive of ōs (“mouth, face”). Doublet of osculate.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑsɪleɪt/

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oscillate (third-person singular simple present oscillates, present participle oscillating, simple past and past participle oscillated)

1. (intransitive) To swing back and forth, especially if with a regular rhythm.

   A pendulum oscillates slower as it gets longer.

   • 2021 December, “Snap Circuits Classic”, in Snap Circuits‎, Elenco, page 27:

     By placing the 0.02μF capacitor on top of the whistle chip, the circuit oscillates at a lower frequency.

2. (intransitive) To vacillate between conflicting opinions, etc.

   The mood for change oscillated from day to day.

3. (intransitive) To vary above and below a mean value.

• vacillate

• oscillator

• oscillation

• undulate

• “oscillate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “oscillate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “oscillate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Tesla coil, lactisole, localites, teocallis

oscillate

1. inflection of oscillare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

oscillate f pl

1. feminine plural of oscillato

• alcoliste, costellai, escatolli, scolliate, sollecita, solletica