vacilar

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vacillāre.

Pronunciation

Verb

vacilar (first-person singular present vacilo, first-person singular preterite vacilei, past participle vacilado)

1. (intransitive) to vacillate (to sway unsteadily from one side to the other)
2. (intransitive) to vacillate (to swing from one course of action or opinion to another)
3. (intransitive) to hesitate
4. (informal) to make a mistake or a wrong choice

   Synonym: bobear

5. (Brazil, idiomatic, intransitive) to behave inattentively, obliviously, or uncarefully

   Synonyms: marcar bobeira, dar bobeira, dar sopa, dar bandeira, marcar touca, moscar, panguar, brisar

Conjugation

Further reading

• “vacilar” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin vacillāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /baθiˈlaɾ/
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /basiˈlaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: va‧ci‧lar

Verb

vacilar (first-person singular present vacilo, first-person singular preterite vacilé, past participle vacilado)

1. to hesitate, waver, dither (UK), vacillate

   Synonym: hesitar (rare)

2. (colloquial, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala) to enjoy

   Synonyms: disfrutar, gozar

3. (colloquial) to spy on

   Synonyms: espiar, avizorar

4. (colloquial) to banter, kid, tease, rib, trick; to play a joke on, to pull someone's leg

   Synonym: tomar el pelo

Conjugation

Derived terms

Further reading

• “vacilar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014