Dawdle vs Stagger - What's the difference?
dawdle | stagger | Related terms |
To spend time idly and unfruitfully, to waste time.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 29
, author=Neil Johnston
, title=Norwich 3 - 3 Blackburn
, work=BBC Sport
* Johnson
To spend (time) without haste or purpose.
To move or walk lackadaisically.
* Thackeray
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.
A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling; as, parasitic staggers; apoplectic or sleepy staggers.
bewilderment; perplexity.
In motorsport, the difference in circumference between the left and right tires on a racing vehicle. It is used on oval tracks to make the car turn better in the corners.
sway unsteadily, reel, or totter
# In standing or walking, to sway from one side to the other as if about to fall; to stand or walk unsteadily; to reel or totter.
#* Dryden
# To cause to reel or totter.
#* Shakespeare
# To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
#* Addison
doubt, waver, be shocked
# To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
#* Bible, Rom. iv. 20
# To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
#* Howell
#* Burke
Multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856
# 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.
# To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next.
# To schedule in intervals.
Dawdle is a related term of stagger.
In lang=en terms the difference between dawdle and stagger
is that dawdle is to move or walk lackadaisically while stagger is multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856[http://wwwetymonlinecom/indexphp?term=stagger etymology] in ).As verbs the difference between dawdle and stagger
is that dawdle is to spend time idly and unfruitfully, to waste time while stagger is sway unsteadily, reel, or totter.As nouns the difference between dawdle and stagger
is that dawdle is a dawdler while stagger is 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.dawdle
English
Verb
(dawdl)citation, page= , passage=However all Hennessey's good work went to waste on 52 minutes when he dawdled on the ball.}}
- Come some evening and dawdle over a dish of tea with me.
- to dawdle away the whole morning
- If you dawdle on your daily walk, you won't get as much exercise.
- We dawdle up and down Pall Mall.
See also
* dally, dander, dandle, diddle, loaf, piddle, wander, doodleAnagrams
* English intransitive verbsstagger
English
Noun
(en noun)Stock Car Racing magazine article on stagger, February 2009
Verb
(en verb)- She began to stagger across the room.
- Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.
- The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.
- That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.
- The enemy staggers .
- He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
- He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.
- Whosoever will read the story of this war will find himself much staggered .
- Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.
Etymology] in [[:w:Online Etymology Dictionary, Online Etymology Dictionary]).
- We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.
- We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.