Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Changing or varying, especially often and without discernible pattern or reason.
- adjective Fickle; faithless.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not constant; subject to change; not firm; unsteady; fickle; capricious: said chiefly of persons: as, inconstant in love or friendship.
- Synonyms Unstable, vacillating, wavering, volatile, unsettled, uncertain.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Not constant; not stable or uniform; subject to change of character, appearance, opinion, inclination, or purpose, etc.; not firm; unsteady; fickle; changeable; variable; -- said of persons or things.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Not
constant ;wavering .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective likely to change frequently often without apparent or cogent reason; variable
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Mark Twain and Will Rogers lived off the foibles of Congressmen who they described as inconstant, untrustworthy, mendacious, venal, etc, etc.
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I have heard him called inconstant of purpose — when he deserted, for the sake of love, the hope of sovereignty, and when he abdicated the protectorship of England, men blamed his infirmity of purpose.
The Last Man 2003
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I know, at last, what the poet meant by that expression, though the word inconstant strikes me as hardly forcible enough.
South Wind Norman Douglas 1910
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I have heard him called inconstant of purpose -- when he deserted, for the sake of love, the hope of sovereignty, and when he abdicated the protectorship of England, men blamed his infirmity of purpose.
The Last Man 1826
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I have heard him called inconstant of purpose -- when he deserted, for the sake of love, the hope of sovereignty, and when he abdicated the protectorship of England, men blamed his infirmity of purpose.
The Last Man Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1824
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He was therefore inconstant, which is the real sin against marriage.
Balloons Elizabeth Bibesco 1921
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They are always called inconstant: but nothing in them changes.
Jean Christophe: in Paris The Market-Place, Antoinette, the House Romain Rolland 1905
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As well might the pole star be called inconstant because it is sometimes to the east and sometimes to the west of the pointers.
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 4 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829
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He was called inconstant, because the relative position in which he stood to the contending factions was perpetually varying.
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 4 Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay 1829
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The manners of those who live in temperate climates are "inconstant", since "the climate has not a quality determinate enough to fix them" (SL 14.2).
Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat Bok, Hilary 2003
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