staggering

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of stagger

comparative more staggering · superlative most staggering

1. Incredible, overwhelming, amazing.

   The army suffered a staggering defeat.

   2 more examples

   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.

   1960 December 28, Voyageur, “The Mountain Railways of the Bernese Oberland”, in Trains Illustrated, page 754

   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.

   2023 December 2, Casey Michel, “Opinion: Why crypto was the perfect tool for criminals and kleptocrats”, in CNN

2. Lurching, floundering.

plural staggerings

1. countableuncountableThe motion of one who staggers.

   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 […]

   1837, “Memoirs of Mirabeau”, in The Westminster Review, volume 26, page 436

2. countableuncountableThe condition of being staggered or amazed.

   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[…]

   1738, Ebenezer Erskine, The Annals of Redeeming Love

3. countableuncountableThe spacing out of various actions over time.

   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.

   1955 July, “Traffic Congestion in London”, in Railway Magazine, page 444

4. countableuncountableIn animation, the repetition of a sequence of frames to show struggling effort