Stag"ger (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Staggered (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Staggering.] [OE. stakeren, Icel. stakra to push, to stagger, fr. staka to punt, push, stagger; cf. OD. staggeren to stagger. Cf. Stake, n.]
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.
Dryden.
2.
To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
"The enemy
staggers."
Addison.
3.
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.
Rom. iv. 20.
© Webster 1913.
Stag"ger, v. t.
1.
To cause to reel or totter.
That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire
That staggers thus my person.
Shak.
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 stagered.
Howell.
Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.
Burke.
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.
© Webster 1913.
Stag"ger, n.
1.
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.
2. pl. Far.
A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; appopletic or sleepy staggers.
3. pl.
Bewilderment; perplexity.
[R.]
Shak.
Stomach staggers Far., distention of the stomach with food or gas, resulting in indigestion, frequently in death.
© Webster 1913.