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Fine Dictionary

unstable

ənˈsteɪbəl
WordNet
Interesting fact
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built on the site of a river estuary. The land under the town has several layers of silt and soft clay. The 15,000-ton tower tilts to the south because the subsoil is too unstable.
  1. (adj) unstable
    subject to change; variable "a fluid situation fraught with uncertainty","everything was unstable following the coup"
  2. (adj) unstable
    affording no ease or reassurance "a precarious truce"
  3. (adj) unstable
    highly or violently reactive "sensitive and highly unstable compounds"
  4. (adj) unstable
    disposed to psychological variability "his rather unstable religious convictions"
  5. (adj) unstable
    suffering from severe mental illness "of unsound mind"
  6. (adj) unstable
    lacking stability or fixity or firmness "unstable political conditions","the tower proved to be unstable in the high wind","an unstable world economy"
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
  1. Unstable
    Not stable; not firm, fixed, or constant; subject to change or overthrow.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (adj) Unstable
    un-stā′bl not stable, unreliable, infirm, inconstant: in such a physical state that the slightest change induces further change of form or composition
Quotations
Honor is unstable and seldom the same; for she feeds upon opinion, and is as fickle as her food.
Charles Caleb Colton
Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary Cf. Instable

Usage in the news

Friday's mass killing of young innocents and adults at a Connecticut elementary school is generating fresh calls for new laws to keep guns from unstable people. nola.com

The news is reporting layoffs, bailouts, and an unstable world market. nailsmag.com

Authorities say gas leaks and unstable buildings have made them too risky to visit. kpbs.org

Cole, 57, was charged after calling a Denver radio talk show last October and revealing how she pretended to be mentally unstable to avoid her civic obligation. cbsnews.com

The coffee market has been an unstable landscape since crop damage in Brazil sent prices through the roof this summer. supermarketnews.com

Good evening… A member of the Afghan militia drugged nine of his colleagues before shooting them to death early Friday in the latest outbreak of violence in the unstable country. blog.timesunion.com

St Vincent, fashions an unstable compound of wistful synths, jittery rhythms, and woozy voices as the mood escalates from serenity to hysteria on this unsettling track. motherjones.com

At times, the New York Stock Exchange can be quite unstable. kxpc.com

Today's workplace is a reflection of the times: uncertain and unstable. forbes.com

Wednesday morning, the State Police reported that an apparently mentally unstable woman threatened to blow up the State House. beaconhilltimes.com

Unstable dam reported near Traverse City . macombdaily.com

For all its reputation as the world's most unstable region, the Middle East has actually been extremely stable in one respect — almost all of its states are ruled by dictators who tend to rule for decades. commentarymagazine.com

The unstable weather southern oregon has seen recently Is forecast to continue for the next two weeks . thedove.us

But what was acceptable in Paris would not pass in the more politically unstable atmosphere of Naples. styleweekly.com

Unstable Euro Triggers 2011 Price Increases. bicycleretailer.com

Usage in scientific papers

Our interest is to describe the time evolution of the unstable state |1i, which is an even function in coordinate representation.
Perturbative method for generalized spectral decompositions

Let us consider the time evolution of the unstable state given by (ρ0 | = (1|.
Perturbative method for generalized spectral decompositions

For example, it is possible to obtain the time evolution of the unstable state ρ0 = (1|.
Perturbative method for generalized spectral decompositions

Using a centered approximation for these terms results in an unstable scheme.
Simple excision of a black hole in 3+1 numerical relativity

However, as discussed at the end of this section, an unstable mode appears when the same simulations are performed on the corresponding full grids.
Simple excision of a black hole in 3+1 numerical relativity

Usage in literature

Such other salts which are decomposed more or less readily are termed "unstable," but the terms are of course only comparative. "The Chemistry of Hat Manufacturing" by Watson Smith

But it had been taken at the expense of further and very gravely shaking the already unstable armed equilibrium of Europe. "A General Sketch of the European War" by Hilaire Belloc

As I was saying, it is very unstable. "The Good Comrade" by Una L. Silberrad

He had built a dream-house on an unstable foundation. "The Hidden Places" by Bertrand W. Sinclair

My Lords, human greatness is an unstable thing. "The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12)" by Edmund Burke

Peace not bought by a victory is an unstable foundation for Indian treaty. "Pathfinders of the West" by A. C. Laut

No doubt it is between the stable and the unstable condition of the molecules of matter that life is born. "The Breath of Life" by John Burroughs

The arc is very unstable and the least breath is sufficient to extinguish it. "Scientific American Supplement, No. 315, January 14, 1882" by Various

Really unstable slopes had been shaken down long ago. "Operation: Outer Space" by William Fitzgerald Jenkins

The Homoean coalition was even more unstable than the Eusebian. "The Arian Controversy" by H. M. Gwatkin

Usage in poetry
O restless heart and fevered brain,
Unquiet and unstable,
That holy well of Loch Maree
Is more than idle fable!
I could not among the misty clouds
Your unstable and painful image catch,
"Oh, my God", I promptly said aloud,
Having not a thought these words to fetch.
I’ve not seen some sadder than your rabble,
And such black as all your lakes and streams,
In your skies – old, faded and unstable –
Yellow clouds of my painful dreams.
If Love so lived and ran and slept and woke
And ran in beauty when each morning broke,
Love yet was boylike, fervid and unstable,
Teased with romance, not knowing truth from fable.
Side by side with Lady Mabel
Sate I, with the sunshade down;
In the distance hummed the Babel
Of the many—footed town;
There we sate with looks unstable—
Now of tenderness, of frown.
These earthly visions prove, alas! unstable;
And we are all too prone to clutch them fast,
Though false, aye, falser than the veriest fable,
To which a "thread of gossamer is cable—"
They cannot—cannot last!