unstable implies an incapacity for remaining in a fixed position or steady course and applies especially to a lack of emotional balance.
too unstable to hold a job
Example Sentences
The Weak will suck up to the Strong, for fear of losing their jobs and their money and all the fickle power they wielded only twenty-four hours ago. Hunter S. Thompson, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2004The corporate fan who has replaced the core fan is a fickle beast, choosy about which games he'll use his precious free time to attend. E. M. Swift, Sports Illustrated, 15 May 2000A failed play was a denial of what Odets was owed, for he was chasing the public no differently than did his bourgeois and nonrevolutionary contemporaries, a public as fickle as it always was and is. Arthur Miller, Harper's, March 1999War is like hard-drug abuse or a fickle lover, an apparently contradictory bolt of compulsion, agony and ecstasy that draws you back in the face of better judgment time and time again. Anthony Loyd, My War Gone By, 1999 He blames poor sales on fickle consumers. a fickle friendship that was on and off over the years See More
Recent Examples on the WebBut support from Reddit and other corners of the internet can be fickle, and taking advantage of stock gains to overhaul physical businesses is no easy endeavor. Julia Horowitz, CNN, 23 Aug. 2022 EVs can sometimes be fickle to top off; the Lightning was set to charge all the way but instead stopped at 94 percent. Dave Vanderwerp, Car and Driver, 18 Aug. 2022 Buzz is essential to fast food companies, which have to battle for notoriously fickle customers who don't have much brand loyalty. Danielle Wiener-bronner, CNN, 3 Aug. 2022 But users are notoriously fickle, and complaints often don’t align with their behavior. Taylor Lorenz, Anchorage Daily News, 27 July 2022 But users are notoriously fickle, and complaints often don’t align with their behavior. Taylor Lorenz, Washington Post, 27 July 2022 How such games might draw from South Florida's notoriously fickle baseball fans is questionable. Cesar Brioso, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2022 But forecasting is notoriously fickle, and there is little accountability for misguided predictions. Devon Powers, Wired, 30 Dec. 2021 Issues in group dynamics could get blown out of all sense of proportion today, thanks to a harsh angle between fickle Mercury and severe Pluto in your 11th House of Social Networks and Global Communications. Tarot Astrologers, chicagotribune.com, 30 Dec. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English fikel deceitful, inconstant, from Old English ficol deceitful; akin to Old English befician to deceive, and probably to Old English fāh hostile — more at foe
VERBS | ADVERBVERBS➤be反復無常ADVERB➤extremely, fairly, very, etc.極其/相當/非常善變▸➤a little, slightly, etc.有點兒/稍微有些變化無常▸➤notoriously人盡皆知的變化無常◇The television world was a notoriously fickle one.電視圈是出了名的變化無常。