Word.ws English Dictionary

stagger

Syllables: stag·ger/ˈstæɡə/US/ˈstæɡɚ/

stagger noun: an unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.

stagger: an unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling...
Image: Royalbroil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

stagger (plural staggers)

  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...
    • 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.1861, Ellen Wood, chapter 39, in East Lynne
  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.

Verb

stagger (third-person singular simple present staggers, present participle staggering, simple past and past participle staggered)

  1. (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.
    • Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.1697, Virgil, “Palamon and Arcite”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  2. (transitive) To cause to 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.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  3. (intransitive) To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
    • 1708, Joseph Addison, The Present State of the War, and the Necessity of an Augmentation
    • The enemy staggers.
  4. (intransitive) To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
    • He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 4:20
  5. (transitive) 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.
    • [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; […]1644, James Howell, England’s Teares, for the Present Wars, […], London: […] Richard Heron, →OCLC, page 6
  6. (transitive) 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.
  7. (transitive) 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.
  8. (transitive) To schedule in intervals or at different times.
    • 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.1962 September, “Talking of Trains: More commuters by rail”, in Modern Railways, page 154

Noun (2)

stagger (plural staggers)

  1. (UK) One who attends a stag night.
    • Tallinn no longer takes pride in the title of 'favourite destination of British staggers'.2013, Phil Hubbard, Cities and Sexualities, page 144

stagger meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

stagger in Hindi

to stagger
डगमगाना ḍagamgānā

stagger in Tamil

தள்ளாடு, தடுமாறு

stagger in Urdu

to stagger, reel
ڈگمگانا ḍagmagānā

stagger in Bengali

হেলেদুলে চলা, টলমল করা
More languagesFewer languages
stagger in Telugu
జోగు jōgu
stagger in Malayalam
റാഞ്ചുക ṟāñcuka
stagger in Kannada
ತೂರಾಟದ ನಡಿಗೆ, ತತ್ತರಿಸುವುದು, ಹೆದರಿಕೆ, ಸ್ಥೈರ್ಯಗೆಡುವಿಕೆ
stagger in Sanskrit
हूर्छति hūrchati
stagger in Arabic
تَرَنُّح tarannuḥ, تَرَنَّحَ tarannaḥa
stagger in Thai
เซ see

Examples of stagger in a sentence

  • the stagger of a drunken man
  • 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.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
  • Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […]...
  • Well, actually, they stagger our exits, so 5:15.2022 February 18, Dan Erickson, “Good News About Hell”, in Severance, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Mark S. (Adam Scott):

All 40 example sentences with stagger

Forms of stagger

Noun
pluralstaggers
Verb
third-person singular presentstaggers
present participlestaggering
past participlestaggered
paststaggered

Past tense of stagger: staggered

Plural of stagger: staggers

Origin of stagger

From Middle English stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.

From stag + -er.

Words formed from stagger

Phrases with stagger

Words that rhyme with stagger

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stagger

What does stagger mean?
Stagger means an unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.
What is stagger in Hindi?
Stagger in Hindi is डगमगाना (ḍagamgānā). See Stagger meaning in Hindi.
How do you use stagger in a sentence?
the stagger of a drunken man
What part of speech is stagger?
Stagger can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce stagger?
Stagger is pronounced /ˈstæɡə/ (UK).
What is the plural of stagger?
The plural of stagger is staggers.

Words near stagger in the dictionary

  1. staggards
  2. staggart
  3. staggarts
  4. Stagge
  5. stagged
  6. stagger
  7. stagger breathe
  8. stagger breathed
  9. stagger breathes
  10. stagger breathing
  11. stagger juice

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stagger (page history and authors); डगमगाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); stagger (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ڈگمگانا (Urdu) (page history and authors); stagger (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); జోగు (Telugu) (page history and authors); റാഞ്ചുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); stagger (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stagger.wav.

Cite this entry: “stagger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stagger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.