STAGGERING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Staggering

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/stˈægərɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Stagger v. t.

1.

To cause to reel or totter. "That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire That staggers thus my person."

2.

To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock. "Whosoever will read the story of this war will find himself much staggered." "Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility."

3.

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.

Stagger v. i. (past & past part. staggered; pres. part. staggering)

1.

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. "Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow."

2.

To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail. "The enemy staggers."

3.

To begin to doubt and waver in purpose; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate. "He (Abraham) staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief."

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Etymology of 'Staggering'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Staggering" Quotes from Famous Books

... and broke into a staggering run to the pile of broken planks that seconds ago had been the tractor shed. As he crossed the yard, a great gust of wind whipped back from the north, pumping clouds of dry, dusty earth before it. The force of the wind almost knocked the bruised and shaken Johnny from his feet once again as ...

— Make Mine Homogenized • Rick Raphael

... she unconscious? I tried to think of all the things which caused a state of unconsciousness. Suppose she should die before I could think of what the trouble was, and before I could do anything to save her life! The thought was staggering! And then as I looked down at the patient again I realized, alas, that my chance of making a diagnosis to give to the family and then to proudly repeat it to Dr. Janeway, had vanished—for at that moment ...

— Some Personal Recollections of Dr. Janeway • James Bayard Clark

... Staggering like a drunken man, he followed her to the door, and stood looking out after her as she went. Then the night mist seemed to rise all about him, swallowing up everything in its ...

— The Song Of The Blood-Red Flower • Johannes Linnankoski

... doors; but they could not get out, and soon attempted to make a sally by assaulting the wall. And the Angles, when they saw that it was tottering under the stout attack of the Danes, began to shove against it on their side, and to prop the staggering pile by the application of large blocks on the outside, to prevent the wall being shattered and releasing the prisoners. But at last it yielded to the stronger hand of the Danes, whose efforts ...

— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... possession of us five Englishmen, and some thirty Frenchmen, the whole of whom were more or less helplessly drunk. And, this being the state of things on board the schooner, it would have been a comparatively easy matter for us five to have overpowered the Frenchmen, who were lying or staggering about the decks, and to have made off with the vessel; but not even to secure our liberty did I consider that I should have been justified in leaving Renouf and the bulk of his ruffians on board the Santa Theresa, to wreak his vengeance ...

— The Log of a Privateersman • Harry Collingwood

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