▪ I. staggard arch.
(ˈstægəd)
Also 5 stagard, 6–7 staggerd, 7 staggarde, 9 staggart.
[f. stag n.1 + -ard.]
1. A stag in its fourth year.
| c 1400 Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) ii, Þe first yere þat thei be calfede, þei be ycalle a calfe.., þe iiii. yere a stagard. Ibid. xxii, An hynde commonlyche hathe hir traces more holowe þenne a staggard or a stagge. 1576 Turberv. Venerie 235 An hart is called the firste yeare a Calfe, the seconde a Brocket, the thirde a spayde, the fourth a Staggerd the fifth a stagge. 1782 J. Elphinston Martial i. ii. xxxi. 26 The staggard [L. cervi] champs the golden bit. 1847 Marryat Childr. N. Forest iv, A stag is called a brocket until he is three years old; at four years he is a staggart. 1859 Todd's Cycl. Anat. V. 517/2 At this stage he [i.e. the deer] is styled a ‘staggard’. 1891 Conan Doyle White Company iii, A lordly red staggard walked daintily out from among the tree-trunks. |
† 2. A swan (? above one year old). Obs. rare—1.
| 1619 in Coates Reading (1802) 59 Swans..the signetts at 4s. 6d. a-piece, and the staggards at 6s. a-piece. |
▪ II. staggard, -arth
dial. var. ff. stack-garth.