stagger

noun

1. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.

   “7 October 2012, Paolo Bandini in The Guardian, Denver Broncos 21 New England Patriots 31 - as it happened Put down the rosary beads folks, I believe hell may just have frozen over. Peyton Manning drops back, sees nothing open and runs for a first down. If you can call that running. More like the stagger of a wounded rhino. Did the job, though”

   “Afy slowly gathered in the sense of the words. She gasped twice, as if her breath had gone, and then, with a stagger and a shiver, fell heavily to the ground.”

   “the stagger of a drunken man”

   “And when old Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance; advance and retire; both hands to your partner, bow and courtesy, corkscrew, thread the needle, and back again to your place; Fezziwig "cut"—cut so deftly that he appeared to wink with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger.”

2. A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling.

   “parasitic staggers”

   “apoplectic or sleepy staggers”

3. Bewilderment; perplexity.
4. The spacing out of various actions over time.

   “19 April 2016, Rachel Roddy in The Guardian, Rachel Roddy’s Roman spring vegetable stew recipe I don’t include cured pork, although it is very nice, and rather than putting everything in the pan at once I prefer a stagger of ingredients, which ensures each one gets the right amount of 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. (UK)One who attends a stag night.

   “Tallinn no longer takes pride in the title of 'favourite destination of British staggers'.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.

   “She began to stagger across the room.”

   “Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.”

   “The burnt and bleeding man staggered to his feet, dazed and unbelieving, and asked the startled townspeople who came running whether his fireman and guard were safe. He was kept away from the smouldering crater where his engine had been, and taken to hospital.”

2. (transitive)To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.

   “The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.”

   “That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.”

3. (intransitive)To sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.

   “1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation”

   “The enemy staggers.”

4. (intransitive)Doubt, waver, be shocked.

   “He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.”

5. (transitive)Doubt, waver, be shocked.

   “He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.”

   “[W]hoſoever vvill be curious to read the future ſtory of this intricate VVarre (if it be poſsible to compile a ſtory of it) he vvill find himſelfe much ſtagger'd, and put to a kind of riddle; […]”

   “Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.”

   “Unless it is intended to divert much of the Southern suburban traffic underground, the size of the structure needed to handle all the Southern Railway suburban, outer suburban, and main-line traffic in one station staggers the imagination.”

6. (transitive)Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).
7. (transitive)Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).

   “We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.”

8. (transitive)Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly spaced, times or places (attested from 1856).

   “We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.”

   “The evening peak (5.30-5.45) is more concentrated than the morning (9–9.15), but it had not been intensified in the 12 months to last November; this is attributed by London Transport partly to efforts to persuade firms to stagger their hours.”

   “You'll leave at 5:00. Well, actually, they stagger our exits, so 5:15. But it won’t feel like it. Not to this version of you anyway.”