fluctuation

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“
The medicine was ordered to be repeated August 6th'.--The medicine has once more produced its proper effect, and the fluid has disappeared On the '16th', however, the fluctuation was again too plainly felt, and the owner determined to have nothing more to do with the case.

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Definitions (9)

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  1. A motion like that of waves; a waving; movement in different directions: as, the fluctuations of the sea. Each base, To left and right, of those tall columns drown'd In silken fluctuation and the swarm Of female whisperers. Tennyson, Princess, vi.
  2. Alternating action or movement; a wavering or varying course; mutation: as, the fluctuations of prices or of the funds; fluctuations of opinion. The excentricities, it is true, will still vary, but too slowly, and to so small an extent as to produce no inconveniency from fluctuation of temperature and season. Paley, Nat. Theol., xxii. Latin was in the sixteenth century a fixed language, while the living languages were in a state of fluctuation. Macaulay, Lord Bacon.
  3. In medicine, the alternating motion of pus or other fluids perceptible on palpation. The experimenter injected three-fourths of a centimetre of the mixture [culture of curved bacilli] under the skin of his left fore-arm, with the result of much œdematous swelling and some pain, with deep fluctuation in the region of the puncture three days afterwards. Science, V. 482.
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Examples (50)

  • "A short-term fluctuation in gas prices is not going to stop us from pursuing that project," Rothenberg said. —  GJSentinel - Latest News Headlines
  • "A short-term fluctuation in gas prices is not going to stop us from pursuing that project," he told the Glenwood Springs Post Independent. —  Vail Daily - Top Stories
  • "They should use reserves to continue spending in key areas to make sure the demand in the economy from the government is a bit higher and it essentially props up the economy during the short term fluctuation," he said. —  News24
  • The disadvantage is that the stop price could be activated by a short-term fluctuation in a stock's price. —  Investopedia.com Headlines
  • The fluctuation, the biggest since Nymex crude trading started in —  Between the Hedges
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. = Old French fluctuatiun, fluctuacion, French fluctuation = Spanish fluctuation = Portuguese fluctuação = Italian fluttuazione, from Latin fluctuatio(n-), from fluctuare, fluctuate: see fluctuate. Cf. flotation, flotsam.
  2. from Latin fructus, fruit, + -ation.
 

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