reeling

[ ree-ling ]

adjective

1. staggering or swaying; unable to walk straight because of a blow, intoxication, etc.:

   It seemed as if a reeling, drunken giant had set the route for the race—it was so full of twists and turns.

2. in a state of mental or emotional shock; overwhelmed:

   As a reeling nation mourns its dead, investigators are trying to determine whether anyone was aware of the homicidal plan.

Word History and Origins

Origin of reeling¹

reel ²( def ) + -ing ²( def )

Example Sentences

To learn more about Janet Yellen and what she’d like to add to her ever-growing highlight reel, read the full profile here.

From Fortune

Apps can take sleep footage and replay it in a timelapse reel, allowing you to observe your baby’s sleeping patterns.

From Popular-Science

At the bottom, a machine—or, sometimes a human—snips off the gob to ready the fiber to be spun onto reels.

From Popular-Science

Our highlight reel could, like the top 10 plays shown daily on ESPN, also acknowledge all the nurses and supermarket cashiers and Amazon delivery drivers who’ve kept us going through the pandemic.

From Washington Post

You just need a recurve or compound with a reel, a barbed arrow, a little stealth—and to put your catch-and-release principles on the back burner.

From Popular-Science

His success later in the afternoon has staggered a nation and sent two families reeling from heartache that never diminishes.

From The Daily Beast

Shumlin estimates the plan will require $2 billion in new taxes for a state already reeling from high property taxes.

From The Daily Beast

Reeling from regional developments and disillusioned with the West, some Iraqi Christians are looking to Russia for support.

From The Daily Beast

The environmental community, reeling from the failure of cap and trade, needed a fight around which to coalesce.

From The Daily Beast

But in some states, creative lawyers have dusted them off and left adult children reeling.

From The Daily Beast

Money was again required to carry the reeling firm through unexpected difficulties.

From Project Gutenberg

Above the uproar of the reeling earth the shriek of the train sounded in his deafened ears.

From Project Gutenberg

The reeling column straightened, grew firm, and with a shout sprang forward.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a glancing blow, but it was enough to daze the man and send him reeling backward.

From Project Gutenberg

Every time the Confederates essayed to charge they were met with such a storm of shot and shell that they went reeling back.

From Project Gutenberg