settle vs stagger

settle

verb
  • To cause to no longer be in a disturbed, confused or stormy; to quiet; to calm (nerves, waters, a boisterous or rebellious child, etc). 

  • To sink gradually to a lower level; to subside, for example the foundation of a house, etc. 

  • To silence, especially by force. 

  • To colonize (an area); to migrate to (a land, territory, site, etc). 

  • To conclude a lawsuit by agreement of the parties rather than a decision of a court. 

  • To sink to the bottom of a body of liquid, as dregs of a liquid, or the sediment of a reservoir. 

  • To place or arrange in(to) a desired (especially: calm) state, or make final disposition of (something). 

  • To become stationary or fixed; to come to rest. 

  • To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). 

  • To become married, or a householder. 

  • To kill. 

  • To become firm, dry, and hard, like the ground after the effects of rain or frost have disappeared. 

  • Of an animal: to make or become pregnant. 

  • To cause to sink down or to be deposited (dregs, sediment, etc). 

  • To become calm, quiet, or orderly; to stop being agitated. 

  • To become compact due to sinking. 

  • To place in(to) a fixed or permanent condition or position or on(to) a permanent basis; to make firm, steady, or stable; to establish or fix. 

  • To adjust differences or accounts; to come to an agreement on matters in dispute. 

  • To clear or purify (a liquid) of dregs and impurities by causing them to sink. 

  • To close, liquidate or balance (an account) by payment, sometimes of less than is owed or due. 

  • In particular, to establish in life; to fix in business, in a home, etc. 

  • To be established in a profession or in employment. 

  • To move (people) to (a land or territory), so as to colonize it; to cause (people) to take residence in (a place). 

  • To conclude, to cause (a dispute) to finish. 

  • In particular, to terminate (a lawsuit), usually out of court, by agreement of all parties. 

  • To put into (proper) place; to make sit or lie properly. 

  • To pay (a bill). 

  • To fix one's residence in a place; to establish a dwelling place, home, or colony. (Compare settle down.) 

  • To render compact or solid; to cause to become packed down. 

  • To become clear due to the sinking of sediment. (Used especially of liquid. also used figuratively.) 

  • To bring or restore (ground, roads, etc) to a smooth, dry, or passable condition. 

  • To formally, legally secure (an annuity, property, title, etc) on (a person). 

stagger

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

  • 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. 

  • 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 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 settle and stagger occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )