staggered
Americanadjective
-
arranged in a series of alternating or continually overlapping intervals of time.
Board members serve staggered four-year terms, with new directors replacing outgoing ones each year.
-
arranged so as to alternate on either side of a center.
A circular base approximately 2 meters in diameter is placed atop a couple of staggered layers of brick to allow for aeration from below.
-
scheduled or ordered in gradual stages; phased.
Microsoft has confirmed that the new update will be a staggered release.
-
rendered helpless with astonishment; shocked.
Shakespeare’s King Lear questions everything we know, posing to our staggered imaginations the possibility that the cosmos is immoral, even malevolent.
verb
Other Word Forms
- unstaggered adjective
Etymology
Origin of staggered
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I staggered toward the wall and put my bag up there, but then wasn’t quite tall enough to sit without some serious scrambling.
From Literature
In Chicago, spinach goes into the ground in staggered rows, insurance against frost.
From Salon
“The staggered nature of the Board limits how much change we can affect in one year, but we do not think the Board should constrain itself on refreshment.”
From Barron's
Gran rose up from her chair, then staggered and fell back.
From Literature
Already, because so many students rely on the tram, the city has staggered school and university hours to pick up the slack of the partial shutdown.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
