English > English | |
stagger | |
1. n. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion | |
the stagger of a drunken man - | |
2. n. (veterinary medicine) A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling | |
parasitic staggers - | |
apoplectic or sleepy staggers - | |
3. n. Bewilderment; perplexity. | |
4. n. The spacing out of various actions over time. | |
5. n. (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 | |
6. n. (aviation) The horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another. | |
7. v. Sway unsteadily, reel, or totter. | |
8. v. (intransitive) 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. | |
She began to stagger across the room. | |
9. v. To cause to reel or totter. | |
The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer. | |
10. v. (intransitive) To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail. | |
11. v. Doubt, waver, be shocked. | |
12. v. (intransitive) To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate. | |
13. v. To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock. | |
He will stagger the committee when he presents his report. | |
14. v. Have multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856 in Online Etymology Dictionary). | |
15. v. 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. | |
16. v. To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next. | |
We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track. | |
17. v. To schedule in intervals. | |
We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers. | |