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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
staggering
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A staggering $3 trillion was spent in building the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
▪ a staggering rise in crime
▪ Apparently, we spend a staggering £2.4 billion a year on food for our pets.
▪ The results of the survey were staggering - over half the children said that they went to school without any breakfast.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Each washing machine cycle, for example, takes a staggering 90 litres, while flushing the toilet uses another nine.
▪ He recently left Wimbledon for Manchester City for a staggering £2.5 million.
▪ In 1988 the drop-out rate reached a staggering 92 percent.
▪ In Islington, 127,000 people registered, and there have been 75,000 summonses and a staggering 70,000 liability orders.
▪ In Newcastle, the waiting list is a staggering 10,000, with 800 families on the homeless list.
▪ Paul had been awkward, but at the promise of a staggering reward, he'd complied.
▪ The success of Marxism in the modern world is quite staggering.
▪ Who knows, the evergreen Martina Navratilova may now be poised to add to her staggering total of more than 160 major titles.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Staggering

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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
staggering

"amazing," 1560s, figurative present participle adjective from stagger (v.). Related: Staggeringly.

Wiktionary
staggering
  1. incredible, overwhelming, amazing. n. 1 The motion of one who staggers. 2 That which staggers something or somebody. v

  2. (present participle of stagger English)

WordNet
staggering
  1. adj. walking unsteadily; "a stqaggering gait" [syn: lurching, stumbling, weaving]

  2. so surprisingly impressive as to stun or overwhelm; "such an enormous response was astonishing"; "an astounding achievement"; "the amount of money required was staggering"; "suffered a staggering defeat"; "the figure inside the boucle dress was stupefying" [syn: astonishing, astounding, stupefying]

Usage examples of "staggering".

The bedraggled captive struggled painfully to his feet, staggering, and set off back along the shore, followed by the dog and the two naked Scots.

Four men--two Romanian privates, an Italian Bersagliere sergeant and a man in full evening dress--came staggering along with a sedan chair the size of a compartment in a railway carriage between them.

Much allowance is to be made for a man who is staggering under the mental shock of defeat and the physical exertions which Buller had endured.

I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise.

They became the biological equivalent of suicide bombers, those maniac so-called hydrophobes staggering around at the morning-curfew change.

Eventually he picked up the box, staggering under the massively increased weight, and held it just above the ground in a much larger cage left over from his experiments, a chicken-wire-fronted mini-aviary five feet high that had contained a small family of canaries.

Link Merwell, and without warning he rushed forward and struck Dave a blow in the chest that sent the Crumville youth staggering against Mr.

Ferad that it held in memory--and one image more, the wizened Molt staggering backwards with his chest shot away and the treaty ablaze in his hand.

Javan murmured as the two half dragged and half walked him staggering into the other room.

Again, we would be staggering through the tide-rips and overfalls that infest the open fairway of the Weser on our passage between the Fork and the Pike.

The responsibilities were overwhelming despite his thorough prenticeship, and his workload was staggering.

Every one turned towards the procureur, who, unable to bear the universal gaze now riveted on him alone, advanced staggering into the midst of the tribunal, with his hair dishevelled and his face indented with the mark of his nails.

At first the tankard held brandy-wine, and he would be red-eyed and staggering at dinner-if Rebozo could talk him into coming to dinner.

His blow tumbled the creature off Rounce and sent it staggering a step or two down the hill.

Koglaur from Sarinda gestured at the bright scene of battle, where Baron Glarsimber was still staggering and hacking happily, shouting defiance at the armaragors he was hacking down.