Other forms: staggered, staggering, staggers
To stagger is to walk unsteadily, nearly falling with each step — from injury, exhaustion or drink. He staggered to the door.
There is a second, quite separate sense that is common in offices: to stagger events is to arrange them at different times so they do not clash — staggered start times, staggered breaks. Nothing about that is unsteady; the picture is of things set at intervals rather than in line. And a third: to stagger somebody is to astonish them, which is where staggering comes from — a staggering amount means an amazing one. Three senses, and only the first involves walking.
1verbstaggerTo walk unsteadily, as if about to fall.
“He staggered out into the street.”
2verbarrangeTo arrange things at different times so they do not overlap.
“The school staggers lunch breaks by year group.”
3verbastonishTo astonish somebody.
“The final bill staggered everybody.”
stagger is a way of moving or arranging.
Also accepted in games: stumble
Old Norse stakra meant to push or to totter. The office sense came much later and from a different picture entirely: things arranged in a zigzag rather than a straight line, which is what a staggered row looks like from the side.
Old Norse
stakra — to push, stagger
Middle English
stakeren
English, today
stagger
From Middle English stakeren, from Old Norse stakra (“to push, stagger”). Cognate with dialectal Danish stagre.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA