What is "stagger"

Stagger \Stag"ger\ (-g[~e]r), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Staggered (-g[~e]rd); 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 purpose; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.

   He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
   --Rom. iv. 20.

Stagger \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; apopletic 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.

Stagger \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 staggered.
   --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.

mid-15c., "walk unsteadily, reel" (intransitive), altered from stakeren (early 14c.), from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Danish stagra, Old Norse stakra "to push, shove, cause to reel," also "to stumble, stagger," perhaps literally "hit with a stick," from Proto-Germanic *stakon- "a stake," from PIE *steg- (1) "pole, stick." Cognate with Dutch staggelen "to stagger," German staggeln "to stammer." Transitive sense of "bewilder, amaze" first recorded 1550s; that of "arrange in a zig-zag pattern" is from 1856. Related: Staggered; staggering.

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 A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; apoplectic or sleepy staggers. 3 bewilderment; perplexity. 4 In motorsport, 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., February 2009 vb. 1 sway unsteadily, reel, or totter 2 # (context intransitive English) 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. 3 # (context transitive English) To cause to reel or totter. 4 # (context intransitive English) To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail. 5 doubt, waver, be shocked 6 # (context intransitive English) To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate. 7 # (context transitive English) To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock. 8 (context transitive English) Multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856 in :w:Online Etymology Dictionary). 9 # 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. 10 # To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next. 11 # To schedule in intervals.

n. an unsteady uneven gait [syn: lurch, stumble]

1. v. walk as if unable to control one's movements; "The drunken man staggered into the room" [syn: reel, keel, lurch, swag, careen]

2. walk with great difficulty; "He staggered along in the heavy snow" [syn: flounder]

3. to arrange in a systematic order; "stagger the chairs in the lecture hall" [syn: distribute]

4. astound or overwhelm, as with shock; "She was staggered with bills after she tried to rebuild her house following the earthquake"

In aviation, '''stagger ''' is the relative horizontal fore-aft positioning of stacked wings in a biplane, triplane, or multiplane.

An aircraft is said to have positive stagger, or simply stagger, when the upper wing is positioned forward of the lower (bottom) wing, Examples include the de Havilland Tiger Moth or Stearman. Conversely, an aeroplane is said to have negative stagger in unusual cases where the upper wing is positioned behind the lower wing, as in the Sopwith Dolphin or Beech Model 17 Staggerwing. An aircraft with the wings positioned directly above each other is said to have unstaggered wings, as in the Sopwith Cuckoo or Vickers Vildebeest.