stagger
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
biology
business
engineering
hobbies
lifestyle
medicine
motor-racing
natural-sciences
pathology
physical-sciences
racing
sciences
sports
veterinary
zoology
Etymology: From Middle English stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.
Inflected forms:
form: staggers
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: staggers
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: staggering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: staggered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: staggered
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.
pos: noun
examples: 7 October 2012, Paolo Bandini in The Guardian, Denver Broncos 21 New England Patriots 31 - as it happened
Put down the rosary beads folks, I believe hell may just have frozen over. Peyton Manning drops back, sees nothing open and runs for a first down. If you can call that running. More like the stagger of a wounded rhino. Did the job, though
Afy slowly gathered in the sense of the words. She gasped twice, as if her breath had gone, and then, with a stagger and a shiver, fell heavily to the ground.
the stagger of a drunken man
And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; advance and retire; both hands to your partner, bow and courtesy, corkscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your place; Fezziwig "cut"—cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger.
gloss: A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling.
pos: noun
examples: parasitic staggers
apoplectic or sleepy staggers
gloss: Bewilderment; perplexity.
pos: noun
gloss: The spacing out of various actions over time.
pos: noun
examples: 19 April 2016, Rachel Roddy in The Guardian, Rachel Roddy’s Roman spring vegetable stew recipe
I don’t include cured pork, although it is very nice, and rather than putting everything in the pan at once I prefer a stagger of ingredients, which ensures each one gets the right amount of time.
gloss: The difference in circumference between the left and right tires on a racing vehicle. It is used on oval tracks to make the car turn better in the corners.
pos: noun
gloss: The horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another.
pos: noun
gloss: To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: She began to stagger across the room.
Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.
The burnt and bleeding man staggered to his feet, dazed and unbelieving, and asked the startled townspeople who came running whether his fireman and guard were safe. He was kept away from the smouldering crater where his engine had been, and taken to hospital.
gloss: To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.
That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.
gloss: To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation
The enemy staggers.
gloss: Doubt, waver, be shocked.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
gloss: Doubt, waver, be shocked.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.
[W]hoſoever vvill be curious to read the future ſtory of this intricate VVarre (if it be poſsible to compile a ſtory of it) he vvill find himſelfe much ſtagger'd, and put to a kind of riddle; […]
Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.
Unless it is intended to divert much of the Southern suburban traffic underground, the size of the structure needed to handle all the Southern Railway suburban, outer suburban, and main-line traffic in one station staggers the imagination.
gloss: Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.
gloss: Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.
The evening peak (5.30-5.45) is more concentrated than the morning (9–9.15), but it had not been intensified in the 12 months to last November; this is attributed by London Transport partly to efforts to persuade firms to stagger their hours.
You'll leave at 5:00. Well, actually, they stagger our exits, so 5:15. But it won’t feel like it. Not to this version of you anyway.
Derived words: bestagger
stagger breathe
stagger breathing
staggerbush
staggerer
staggering bob
staggeringly
stagger juice
staggerment
staggers
stagger soup
stagger-through
staggerweed
staggerwort
staggery
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: залитам
roman: zalitam
lang: Catalan
word: tentinejar
lang: Czech
word: potácet se
lang: Czech
word: vrávorat
lang: Dutch
word: wankelen
lang: Dutch
word: waggelen
lang: Finnish
word: hoiperrella
lang: French
word: tituber
lang: Galician
word: cambalear
lang: German
word: torkeln
lang: Ingrian
word: horjua
lang: Italian
word: barcollare
lang: Latin
word: titubō
lang: Latin
word: nūtō
lang: Middle English
word: stakeren
lang: Portuguese
word: cambalear
lang: Russian
word: шата́ться
roman: šatátʹsja
lang: Spanish
word: tambalear
lang: Swedish
word: ragla
lang: Thai
word: เซ
roman: see
lang: Finnish
word: porrastaa
lang: Irish
word: agaigh