stagger Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an unsteady uneven gait
    lurch; stumble.
  2. verb walk as if unable to control one's movements
    swag; lurch; keel; careen; reel.
    • The drunken man staggered into the room
  3. verb walk with great difficulty
    flounder.
    • He staggered along in the heavy snow
  4. verb to arrange in a systematic order
    distribute.
    • stagger the chairs in the lecture hall
  5. verb astound or overwhelm, as with shock
    • She was staggered with bills after she tried to rebuild her house following the earthquake

WordNet

Stag"ger intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. stakeren, Icel. stakra to push, to stagger, fr. staka to punt, push, stagger; cf. OD. staggeren to stagger. Cf. Stake, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Staggered ; present participle & verbal noun Staggering
Definitions
  1. To move to one side and the other, as if about to fall, in standing or walking; not to stand or walk with steadiness; to sway; to reel or totter.
    Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow. Dryden.
  2. To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail. "The enemy staggers." Addison.
  3. To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
    He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Rom. iv. 20.
Stag"ger transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cause to reel or totter.
    That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire That staggers thus my person. Shak.
  2. To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
    Whosoever will read the story of this war will find himself much stagered. Howell.
    Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility. Burke.
  3. To arrange (a series of parts) on each side of a median line alternately, as the spokes of a wheel or the rivets of a boiler seam.
Stag"ger noun
Definitions
  1. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing, as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion; vertigo; -- often in the plural; as, the stagger of a drunken man.
  2. pl. (Far.) A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; appopletic or sleepy staggers.
  3. pl. Bewilderment; perplexity. R. Shak.

Webster 1913