\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.

\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.

\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.