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Stagger vs Squirm - What's the difference?

stagger | squirm |

As nouns the difference between stagger and squirm

is that 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 while squirm is a twisting, snakelike movement of the body.

As verbs the difference between stagger and squirm

is that stagger is sway unsteadily, reel, or totter while squirm is to twist one’s body with snakelike motions.

stagger

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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. Stock Car Racing magazine article on stagger, February 2009

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • 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.
  • She began to stagger across the room.
  • #* Dryden
  • Deep was the wound; he staggered with the blow.
  • # To cause to reel or totter.
  • The powerful blow of his opponent's fist staggered the boxer.
  • #* Shakespeare
  • That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire / That staggers thus my person.
  • # To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail.
  • #* Addison
  • The enemy staggers .
  • doubt, waver, be shocked
  • # To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.
  • #* Bible, Rom. iv. 20
  • He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief.
  • # To cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock.
  • He will stagger the committee when he presents his report.
  • #* Howell
  • Whosoever will read the story of this war will find himself much staggered .
  • #* Burke
  • Grants to the house of Russell were so enormous, as not only to outrage economy, but even to stagger credibility.
  • Multiple groups doing the same thing in a uniform fashion, but starting at different, evenly-spaced, times or places (attested from 1856 Etymology] in [[:w:Online Etymology Dictionary, Online Etymology Dictionary]).
  • # 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.
  • We will stagger the starting positions for the race on the oval track.
  • # To schedule in intervals.
  • We will stagger the run so the faster runners can go first, then the joggers.

    • See also

    * bestagger * staggeringly * staggers

    References

    Anagrams

    *

    squirm

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To twist one’s body with snakelike motions.
    • The prisoner managed to squirm out of the straitjacket.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
    • ...around us there had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage. They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • "Throw it away, dear, do," she said, as they got into the road; but Jacob squirmed away from her...
  • To twist in discomfort, especially from shame or embarrassment.
    • I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm .
  • * 2010 , , Questionable Content 1686: Twist in the Wind
    • MARIGOLD: Should I tell them I know?
    DORA: Nah, let ’em squirm . Let’s go get some pie.
  • To evade (a question, an interviewer etc).
  • (figuratively) To move in a slow, irregular motion.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=February 5 , author=Michael Kevin Darling , title=Tottenham 2 - 1 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The Dutchman then missed a retaken second spot-kick, before the Trotters hit back when Daniel Sturridge's shot squirmed under Heurelho Gomes. }}

    Derived terms

    * squirmage * squirmish * squirmishness * squirmy

    Synonyms

    * (twist with snakelike motions) writhe, wriggle * (twist in discomfort) fidget

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A twisting, snakelike movement of the body.