stagger

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
stagger/ˈstaɡə(r)/

▶verb

• 1 walk or move unsteadily, as if about to fall.

  ■ continue in existence or operation uncertainly: the treasury staggered from one crisis to the next.

• 2 astonish or shock.

• 3 spread over a period of time.

• 4 arrange (objects or parts) so that they are not in line.

• 5 archaic waver or hesitate.

▶noun

• 1 an act of staggering.

• 2 (the stagger) the staggered arrangement of the runners on a track at the start of a race.

– derivatives
staggerer noun,
staggering noun & adjective,
staggeringly adverb.

– origin ME: alt. of dial. stacker, from ON stakra, frequentative of staka ‘push, stagger’.