Stagger

1. (n.) 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.

2. (n.) To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.

3. (n.) To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.

4. (v. t.) To cause to reel or totter.

5. (v. t.) To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.

6. (v. t.) 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. (n.) An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing, as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion; vertigo; -- often in the plural; as, the stagger of a drunken man.

8. (n.) A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; appopletic or sleepy staggers.

9. (n.) Bewilderment; perplexity.

Thesaurus Entries

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