stagger
verb
- cause an emotional reaction
- move unsteadily
- arrange in overlapping time periods
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L328398 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈstæɡə/ / /ˈstæɡɚ/ / /ˈsteɪ̯ɡɚ/
noun
Etymology: Etymology tree English stag English -er English stagger From stag + -er.
- One who attends a stag night.
“Tallinn no longer takes pride in the title of 'favourite destination of British staggers'.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.
- To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
“She began to stagger across the room.”
“Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.”
- To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
“The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.”
“That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.”
- To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.
“1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation”
“The enemy staggers.”
- Doubt, waver, be shocked.
“He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.”
- Doubt, waver, be shocked.
“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; […]”
- Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
- Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
“We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.”
- Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
“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.”