Emily Dickinson Lexicon

REEL, v.i. [Sw. ragla; Qu. Class Rg, or Ar. رَغَلَ ragala, to lean. Class Rl, No. 4.]

To stagger; to incline or move in walking, first to one side and then to the other; to vacillate. He with heavy fumes opprest, / Reel'd from the palace and retir'd to rest. – Pope. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. – Ps. cvii.