Definition of "vicissitude"

vicissitude

noun
plural vicissitudes
1. Regular change or succession from one thing to another, or one part of a cycle to the next; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
2. (often in the plural) A change, especially in one's life or fortunes.
  Quotations
  And God made.. the Stars, and set them in the firmament of Heaven to illuminate the Earth, and rule the day in their vicissitude...
  1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
  Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month.
  1789, George Washington, First Inaugural Address
  The vicissitudes of war in Iraq cast a dreary backdrop for Donald Rumsfeld's first visit to Asian military allies since he became US Defense Secretary in 2001.
  2003 November 18, “US redeployments afoot in Asia”, in Christian Science Monitor, page 6
  Engaged intellectuals were obliged to take a stand on the side of progress and History, whatever the occasional moral vicissitudes.
  2005, Tony Judt, “Culture Wars”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010
  Despite all the monarchy’s vicissitudes, however, Queen Elizabeth II, a figure from another age, who was stiff and formal and not noticeably particularly warm and empathetic, had won and retained the affection, loyalty and support of the overwhelming majority of the British public, who respected her for her diligence and sense of duty.
  September 8 2022, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian‎

Definition of "vicissitude"

vicissitude

noun

Quotations