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Advanced English Word of the Day

stagger




Definitions

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.

Pronunciation

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Example Sentences

He can stagger across the stage like a drunken fool, can't he? 
At a time when the most admired composers seem often to be those with the persistence to make a lot out of a little, there should be space for the profligates who stagger through, scattering original ideas around, and, from time to time, coming up with real pearls. 



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