staggering

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English

Pronunciation

Verb

staggering

  1. present participle and gerund of stagger

Adjective

staggering (comparative more staggering, superlative most staggering)

  1. Incredible, overwhelming, amazing.
    The army suffered a staggering defeat.
    • 1960 December, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 754:
      It is this stretch which provides what is perhaps the most staggering scenic prospect of all; the impression made on the mind by the overwhelming height of the Eiger, towering over the train, is almost impossible to describe.
    • 2023 December 2, Casey Michel, “Opinion: Why crypto was the perfect tool for criminals and kleptocrats”, in CNN:
      Binance may be the biggest crypto house exposed, but it is simply the latest in a long line of financial institutions whose lack of money laundering oversight — and willingness to look the other way — has drawn in staggering amounts of illicit wealth and attracted the world’s leading criminal rings and kleptocratic regimes.
  2. Lurching, floundering.

Derived terms

Translations

Translations

Noun

staggering (countable and uncountable, plural staggerings)

An example of the animation technique "staggering" as seen in "The Dover Boys" (1942, dir. Chuck Jones)
  1. The motion of one who staggers.
    • 1837, “Memoirs of Mirabeau”, in The Westminster Review, volume 26, page 436:
      There are to whom the gods, in their bounty, give glory: but far oftener it is given in wrath, as a curse and a poison; disturbing the whole inner health and industry of the man; leading onward through dizzy staggerings and tarantula jiggings
  2. The condition of being staggered or amazed.
    • 1738, Ebenezer Erskine, The Annals of Redeeming Love:
      But these doubts, and fears, and staggerings, although they may be in the believer, yet they are not in his faith; these things argue the infirmity of his faith, indeed; but under all this, faith is fighting for the victory
  3. The spacing out of various actions over time.
    • 1955 July, “Traffic Congestion in London”, in Railway Magazine, page 444:
      As a result of the recommendation of the Committee of Inquiry into London Transport, a Government-sponsored scheme for the staggering of working hours in London has been announced.
  4. In animation, the repetition of a sequence of frames to show struggling effort

References