stagger

CEFRB2

/ˈstæɡə/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To walk unsteadily as if about to fall.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling.

Examples

  • The company is attempting to stagger work hours.

  • Nothing can ever stagger her belief.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈsteɪ̯ɡɚ/

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. Bewilderment; perplexity.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion.

  2. The spacing out of various actions over time.

More examples

In context

  • the stagger of a drunken man

  • 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...

  • parasitic staggers

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After the strong punch to his head, he began to blank and almost fell.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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