heel vs stagger

heel

verb
  • To incline to one side; to tilt. 

  • To add a heel to, or increase the size of the heel of (a shoe or boot). 

  • To arm with a gaff, as a cock for fighting. 

  • To follow at somebody's heels; to chase closely. 

  • To perform by the use of the heels, as in dancing, running, etc. 

  • To hit (the ball) with the heel of the club. 

  • To make (a fair catch) standing with one foot forward, the heel on the ground and the toe up. 

  • To kick with the heel. 

noun
  • The act of inclining or canting from a vertical position; a cant. 

  • A woman's high-heeled shoe. 

  • Anything resembling a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob. 

  • The base of a bun sliced in half lengthwise. 

  • The part of a shoe's sole which supports the foot's heel. 

  • The last or lowest part of anything. 

  • The short side of an angled cut. 

  • A headlining wrestler regarded as a "bad guy," whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits and demonstrates characteristics of a braggart and a bully. 

  • The rear part of a sock or similar covering for the foot. 

  • In a carding machine, the part of a flat nearest the cylinder. 

  • The junction between the keel and the stempost of a vessel; an angular wooden join connecting the two. 

  • A contemptible, unscrupulous, inconsiderate or thoughtless person. 

  • The part of a club head's face nearest the shaft. 

  • The obtuse angle of the lower end of a rafter set sloping. 

  • The lower end of the bit (cutting edge) of an axehead; as opposed to the toe (upper end). 

  • The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg. 

  • The back, upper part of the stock. 

  • The part of the palm of a hand closest to the wrist. 

  • The cards set aside for later use in a patience or solitaire game. 

  • A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread. 

  • The lower end of a timber in a frame, as a post or rafter. 

stagger

verb
  • 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. 

  • To cease to stand firm; to begin to give way; to fail. 

  • To begin to doubt and waver in purposes; to become less confident or determined; to hesitate. 

  • 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 cause to doubt and waver; to make to hesitate; to make less steady or confident; to shock. 

  • To arrange similar objects such that each is ahead or above and to one side of the next. 

  • To schedule in intervals or at different times. 

  • To cause to reel or totter. 

noun
  • An unsteady movement of the body in walking or standing as if one were about to fall; a reeling motion. 

  • The spacing out of various actions over time. 

  • One who attends a stag night. 

  • The horizontal positioning of a biplane, triplane, or multiplane's wings in relation to one another. 

  • Bewilderment; perplexity. 

  • 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. 

  • A disease of horses and other animals, attended by reeling, unsteady gait or sudden falling. 

How often have the words heel and stagger occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )