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stagger

Pronunciation: /ˈstæɡə/

The English word “stagger” has 15 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.
  2. A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling.
  3. Bewilderment; perplexity.
  4. The spacing out of various actions over time.
  5. 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.
  6. The horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another.
  7. One who attends a stag night.

verb

  1. In standing or walking, to sway from one side to the other as if about to fall; to stand or walk unsteadily; to reel or totter.
  2. To cause to reel or totter.
  3. To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
  4. To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
  5. To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
  6. 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.
  7. To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next.
  8. To schedule in intervals or at different times.

Etymology

From Middle English stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.