pendulate

present singular third person pendulates · participle present pendulating · participle past pendulated · past pendulated

1. To swing like a pendulum.

   Watch a male in fight. He will pendulate over one spot for ten or fifteen minutes , then change his position and pendulate again .

   1903, Nature-study, Entomology: Section D: Lepidoptera, page 8

   2 more examples

   There is an old trick of suspending a shilling by a thread, and causing it to pendulate within a glass , so as to strike its sides , the thread being held between the finger and thumb .

   1851 December 20, J.O.N Rutter, John W. Parker, “Maguctoid Currents, their Forces and Directions”, in Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Science, and Art, number 1822, page 897

   Lungarella and Metta (in Lungarella, M. and Metta, G. 2003) studies the role of changes in the qcquisition of primary motor abilities: learning to pendulate (to swing like a pendulum) or bounce. In the first case the study was conducted with a small-sized humanoid robot that learned to pendulate.

   2010, Temel, Turgay, System and Circuit Design for Biologically-Inspired Intelligent Learning, page 7

2. To vacillate between states, especially states of arousal and of relaxation.

   What's important to realize is that you can pendulate—swing back and forth—between these sensations of expansion and contraction.

   2012, Peter A. Levine, Healing Trauma

   2 more examples

   If it stops feeling okay, pendulate to thinking about (or doing) something that feels nurturing for you: it it's available to you, get up and move around, look at a favorite picture or painting, talk to a friend, or pet your dog or cat.

   2023, Bret Lyon, Sheila Rubin, Embracing Shame

   When we can pendulate between between those vagal states, shift between frozen to connected to withdrawing to integrated, this is the ANS capacity at its best, "mov[ing] between sympathetic and parasympathetic modes in an optimal balance".

   2023, Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman, Voon Mung Ling, Kiran deep Sandhu, Women Practicing Resilience, Self-care and Wellbeing in Academia

comparative more pendulate · superlative most pendulate

1. biologypendulous.

   Here the rachis is bent at the point of its origin, and thereby it produces pendulate inflorescence.

   1967, Kenjiro Fujii, Cytologia, page 447

   2 more examples

   Above the lower headcut, phreatophytic mesquite and little leaf sumac hug the banks, drawing pendulate water from the silts remaining from former marsh deposits and sending long taproots into channel stores.

   2007, Susan L. Woodward, “Modern Vegetation of the Murray Springs Area and the Upper San Pedro Valley”, in Caleb Vance Haynes, Bruce B. Huckell, editor, Murray Springs, page 58

   The first group of genotypes demonstrates a pendulate/spreading form, whereas the second group remains upright when the fruits grow on the shoots.

   2021, Debashis Mandal, Ursula Wermund, Lop Phavaphutanon, Temperate Fruits: Production, Processing, and Marketing