stagger n.2
(orig. US) an effort, a try, esp. in phr. make a stagger at.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Scriptural Panoramist’ in Screamers (1875) 149: He would make one more stagger at it anyway. | |
 | Star Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 21 Sept. 3/3: That’s a conundrum that it would well become the Tribune to make a stagger at guessing. | |
| Buffalo Courier (NY) 29 Nov. 2/6: ‘I find on examination that you can’t sing at all. All you can do is make a stagger at it’. | |
| Anaconda Standard (MT) 15 Feb. 4/1: [They] are wondering how they are going to make a stagger at it for grub enough to carry them over the season. | |
| Shorty McCabe 46: He made a stagger at putting up a game of talk. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | (ref. to 1883) in Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. | |
| Green bay Press-Gaz. (WI) 12 May 12/3: ‘I don’t know exactly what you mean by bigger game, but I can make a stagger at it’. | |
| Batesville Dly Guard (AR) 28 July 2/1: You had [...] to make a stagger at stopping war gossip. | |
| Oracle (Kingman, KS) 12 Jan. 2/1: We are all able to make a stagger at singing. | |
| Gangster Girl 83: I was bound to make a stagger at it. | |
| Pittsburgh Press (PA) 24 Apr. 2/1: Nobody can know everything, although you certainly make a stagger at it! |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
(W.I.) a form of toffee that is so tough that one ‘staggers back’ as one attempts to chew it.
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
(US) alcohol.
| Tennessean 13 Sept. 4/6: Business man’s lunch now consists of food. Can’t get any stagger food. Booze garages are closed. |
alcohol; thus stagger juicery, a public house.
| Yorkville Enquirer (York, SC) 11 June 2/1: Corn [...] can be better employed on the kneading board [...] than soaked in the distiullery tub for ‘stagger juice’. | |
| Argus & Patriot (Montpelier, VT) 11 Dec. 4/4: While under the influence of ‘stagger juice’ Henry Bugbee [...] managed to [etc]. | |
| Wkly State Chron. (Raleigh, NC) 22 Feb. 4/2: We regret that we were unable to publish the Courier last week [...] as our printer became impregnated with the essence of stagger juice. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | N. Melbourne Advertiser (Vic.) 20 Mar. 3/6: The name of the ‘pubs’ is legion, and some of the ‘stagger juice’ vended, abominable. | |
| Barrier Miner (Broken Hill) 18 July 3/1: The Adelaide Stagger Juice Brigade [...] exemplified in the number of nose-painting drunkard-makers who attended. | |
| Aus. Parliamentary Debates XXIV 7554/2: A man in New Guinea can have all the whisky he desires. We might as well start a stagger-juicery up there at once. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | N.Z. Truth 8 Feb. 6/4: He shouldn’t want to biff anybody [...] when he is full of staggerjuice. | |
| [perf. Harry Champion] ‘Any Old Iron’ 🎵 I got full right up to here in fourp’ny ‘stagger juice’. | |
| Truth (Wellington) 22 May 7/3: [Her] kink for stagger juice caused her husband [...] to put in for a divorce. | |
| Call & W.A. Sportsman (Perth, WA) 23 Apr. 9/5: King O’Malley [...] issued a circular warn ing the staff that several of the members [of Parliament] were addicted to the too frequent use of ‘stagger-juice’ which practice must cease forthwith. | |
| Mirror (Perth) 10 Feb. 4/7: treading on the toes could not be helped by some clumsy friends who tried the stagger-juice. | |
| (con. WWI) Soldier and Sailor Words 269: Stagger Juice: Any intoxicant. | |
| Dames Don’t Care (1960) 8: This dame is plumb full of stagger-juice. | |
| Western Mail (Perth) 30 Nov. 2/1: Go light on this ’ere stagger juice. | |
| Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. | |
| Examiner (Launceston, Tas.) 13 Dec. 2/1: ‘If you drive, don’t drink; if you drink, don’t drive’ — Anti-Stagger Juice. | |
| Canberra Times 7 July 5/4: ‘Never drink stagger juice, smoke, or lose your sense of humour’ was the long-life recipe of Mr O’Malley. | |
| I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 239/2: stagger juice – strong drink. | |
| Folklore of the Aus. Pub. | |
| Lingo 133: The problems associated with over-proof and downright dangerous concoctions are also numerous in colloquial speech: [...] stagger-juice; snake-juice; plonk; red ned; bombo; chateau cardboard (all terms for poor quality wine). | |
| Short History of Drunkenness 194: You raise the glass of stagger-juice to your lips and down it in one. |
(US) strong, if not very high-quality whisky.
| Pensacola News Jrnl (FL) 27 Aug. 4/4: [cartoon caption] Here Deacon [...] take this case of stagger soup as a present. | |
| ‘Drunk in Sl.’ in AS XVI:1 Jan. 70/2: liquor stagger soup. | |
| McHenry Plain Dealer (IL) 3 Oct. 2/5: ‘Hey Harry, pass me that bottle o’ stagger-soup. I need a bracer’. | |
| Jrnl Times (Racine, WI) 29 Dec. 2/3: [headline] Stagger Soup Trips Horse and Owner. Police arrested a beer-drinking horse and its owner. |