Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stagger?

\Stag"ger\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Staggered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Staggering}.] [OE. stakeren, Icel. stakra to push, to stagger, fr. staka to punt, push, stagger; cf. OD. staggeren to stagger. Cf. {Stake}, n.] 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\, v. t. 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\, n. 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. {Stomach staggers} (Far.), distention of the stomach with food or gas, resulting in indigestion, frequently in death.