Tumble vs Stagger - What's the difference?
tumble | stagger |
A fall.
An act of sexual intercourse.
* John Betjeman, Group Life: Letchworth
* 1979 , Martine, Sexual Astrology (page 219)
(lb) To fall end over end.
*(Robert South) (1634–1716)
*:He who tumbles from a tower surely has a greater blow than he who slides from a molehill.
*
*:“Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are'' pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling ''à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better.”
To perform gymnastics such as somersaults, rolls, and handsprings.
:(Rowe)
To roll over and over.
*1908 , (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
*:The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief.
(lb) To have sexual intercourse.
(lb) To smooth and polish a rough surface on relatively small parts.
To muss, to make disorderly; to tousle or rumple.
:
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.
In intransitive terms the difference between tumble and stagger
is that tumble is to fall end over end while stagger is to begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate.In transitive terms the difference between tumble and stagger
is that tumble is to smooth and polish a rough surface on relatively small parts 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).tumble
English
Noun
(en noun)- I took a tumble down the stairs and broke my tooth.
- Wouldn't it be jolly now, / To take our Aertex panters off / And have a jolly tumble in / The jolly, jolly sun?
- When you've just had a tumble between the sheets and are feeling rumpled and lazy, she may want to get up so she can make the bed.
Derived terms
* rough and tumble * take a tumble * tumble dryer * tumbler * give a tumbleVerb
(tumbl)Derived terms
* tumble tostagger
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.