Instábilis, & hoc instábile, pen. cor. Plin. Vnstable: vnconstant: light: that cannot tary or abide in a place or in one state.Animi instabiles. Virgil. Shittle heads: vnconstant and waucring mindes.Instabilis homo.Liu.An vnconstant and light felow.Instabilis hostis ad cominus conserendas manus. Liuius. A skittish enimie % wil not abide in one place to be foughtÊ with.Locus instabilis.Ouid.Regnum instabile. Sen.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
in-stăbĭlĭo, īre, 4, v. a., to fortify, Hyg. de Munit. Castr. 54.
in-stăbĭlis, e, adj., that does not stand fast, unsteady, unstable, tottering, not firm (mostly poet.; syn. varius, mutabilis, vagus; not in Cic.). I.Lit.: sic erat instabilis tellus, Ov. M. 1, 16: locus ad gradum instabilis, Tac. A. 1, 64: (with lubricus) gradus, Curt. 8, 11, 13: ingressus, Liv. 24, 34, 15: vestigium, Plin. Pan. 22, 4: volutatio, Plin. 31, 6, 33, 63: cymbae, Verg. G. 4, 195: naves, Curt. 4, 2, 9.—Transf., unsteady, i. e. that does not keep its ground: (with fluctuans) acies, Liv. 9, 35, 6: hostis, id. 27, 18, 14.—II.Trop., unstable, inconstant, changeable, fickle: insanam aiunt (Fortunam), quia atrox, incerta instabilisque sit, Pac. ap. Auct. Her. 2, 23, 36: res maritimae celerem atque instabilem mo tum habent, Caes. B. G. 4, 23: nihil tam instabile ac fluxum est, quam fama, Tac. A. 13, 19: fortuna, id. H. 4, 47: conjugium, Juv. 9, 79: animus, Verg. G. 4, 105 (but read insatiabiles, Curt. 7, 8, 19). — Adv.: instă-bĭlĭter, unsteadily, Aug. Conf. 13, 20.