Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To check the growth or development of.
  • noun One that stunts.
  • noun One that is stunted.
  • noun A plant disease that causes dwarfing.
  • noun A feat displaying unusual strength, skill, or daring.
  • noun Something done to attract attention or publicity.
  • intransitive verb To perform stunts or a stunt.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a fool of.
  • To check; cramp; hinder; stint: used of growth or progress.
  • To check the growth or development of; hinder the increase or progress or; cramp; dwarf: as, to stunt a child by hard usage.
  • Dull; obtuse; stupid; foolish.
  • Fierce; angry.
  • noun An animal which has been prevented from attaining its proper growth; a stunted creature; specifically, a whale of two years, which, having been weaned, is lean, and yields but little blubber.
  • noun A check in growth; a partial or complete arrest of development or progress.
  • noun A feat; a performance of more or less difficulty, especially in athletics.
  • An assistant; assistant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A check in growth; also, that which has been checked in growth; a stunted animal or thing.
  • noun Specifically: A whale two years old, which, having been weaned, is lean, and yields but little blubber.
  • transitive verb To hinder from growing to the natural size; to prevent the growth of; to stint, to dwarf.
  • noun colloq. A feat hard to perform; an act which is striking for the skill, strength, or the like, required to do it; a feat.
  • noun an unusual action performed to gain public attention.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A daring or dangerous feat, often involving the display of gymnastic skills.
  • noun archaic skill
  • verb transitive To check or hinder the growth or development of.
  • verb intransitive, slang, African American Vernacular To show off; to posture.
  • noun A check in growth.
  • noun That which has been checked in growth; a stunted animal or thing.
  • noun A two-year-old whale, which, having been weaned, is lean and yields little blubber.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb check the growth or development of
  • noun a creature (especially a whale) that has been prevented from attaining full growth
  • noun a difficult or unusual or dangerous feat; usually done to gain attention
  • verb perform a stunt or stunts

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English stunnt, foolish, short-witted, short (influenced by Old Norse stuttr, short, dwarfish), from Old English stunt.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From dialectal stunt ("stubborn, dwarfed"), from Middle English stont, stunt ("short, brief"), from Old English stunt ("stupid, foolish, simple"), from Proto-Germanic *stuntaz (“short, compact, stupid, dull”). Cognate with Middle High German stunz ("short"), Old Norse stuttr ("short in stature, dwarfed"). Related to Old English styntan ("to make dull, stupefy, become dull, repress"). More at stint.

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Examples

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  • Stubborn, fierce, angry. Definition given for this old Lincolnshire provincial term in Grose's 1787 A Provincial Glossary.

    May 5, 2011