Adjacent Words

Stunt definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

STUNT, v.t. [See Stint.] To hinder from growth; applied to animals and plants; as, to stunt a child; to stunt a plant.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a difficult or unusual or dangerous feat; usually done to gain attention
2: a creature (especially a whale) that has been prevented from attaining full growth v
1: check the growth or development of; "You will stunt your growth by building all these muscles"
2: perform a stunt or stunts

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb Etymology: English dialect stunt stubborn, stunted, abrupt, probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse stuttr scant — more at stint Date: 1583 to hinder the normal growth, development, or progress of • stuntedness noun II. noun Date: 1725 1. one (as an animal) that is stunted 2. a check in growth 3. a plant disease in which dwarfing occurs III. noun Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1878 1. an unusual or difficult feat requiring great skill or daring; especially one performed or undertaken chiefly to gain attention or publicity 2. a shifting or switching of the positions by defensive players at the line of scrimmage in football to disrupt the opponent's blocking efforts IV. intransitive verb Date: 1917 to perform or engage in a stunt

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. v.tr. 1 retard the growth or development of. 2 dwarf, cramp. Derivatives: stuntedness n. Etymology: stunt foolish (now dial.), MHG stunz, ON stuttr short f. Gmc, perh. rel. to STUMP 2. n. & v. --n. 1 something unusual done to attract attention. 2 a trick or daring manoeuvre. 3 a display of concentrated energy. --v.intr. perform stunts, esp. aerobatics. Phrases and idioms: stunt man a man employed to take an actor's place in performing dangerous stunts. Etymology: orig. unkn.: first used in 19th-c. US college athletics

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stunt Stunt, n. [Cf. Stint a task.] A feat hard to perform; an act which is striking for the skill, strength, or the like, required to do it; a feat. [Colloq.] An extraordinary man does three or four different ``stunts'' with remarkable dexterity. --The Bookman. He does not try to do stunts; and, above all, he does not care to go in swimming. --L. Hutton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stunt Stunt, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stunted; p. pr. & vb. n. Stunting.] [See Stint.] To hinder from growing to the natural size; to prevent the growth of; to stint, to dwarf; as, to stunt a child; to stunt a plant. When, by a cold penury, I blast the abilities of a nation, and stunt the growth of its active energies, the ill or may do is beyond all calculation. --Burke.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stunt Stunt, n. 1. A check in growth; also, that which has been checked in growth; a stunted animal or thing. 2. Specifically: A whale two years old, which, having been weaned, is lean, and yields but little blubber.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(stunts, stunting, stunted) 1. A stunt is something interesting that is done in order to attract attention and get publicity for the person or company responsible for it. In a bold promotional stunt for the movie, he smashed his car into a passing truck. N-COUNT 2. A stunt is a dangerous and exciting piece of action in a film. Sean Connery insisted on living dangerously for his new film by performing his own stunts. N-COUNT 3. If something stunts the growth or development of a person or thing, it prevents it from growing or developing as much as it should. The heart condition had stunted his growth a bit... High interest rates have stunted economic growth. VERB: V n, V n • stunted Damage may result in stunted growth and sometimes death of the plant. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Dwarf, stint, stop the growth of, hinder from growth.

Moby Thesaurus

abbreviate, abridge, abstract, accomplished fact, accomplishment, achievement, act, acta, acting, action, adventure, arrest, bank, blow, bob, boil down, buffoonery, business, caper, capsulize, characterization, check, clip, compress, condense, contract, coup, crab, crop, curb, curtail, cut, cut back, cut down, cut off short, cut short, dealings, deed, delimit, dido, dip, dock, doing, doings, dwarf, effort, elide, end, endeavor, enterprise, epitomize, exploit, fait accompli, feat, feather, fishtail, foreshorten, gag, gest, go, ham, hammy acting, hamper, hand, handiwork, hinder, hoke, hokum, hold back, impair, impede, impersonation, job, limit, loop, maneuver, measure, mimesis, mimicking, mimicry, miming, move, mow, mummery, nip, operation, overacting, overt act, pantomiming, passage, patter, performance, performing, personation, playacting, playing, plow, poll, pollard, porpoise, portrayal, proceeding, production, projection, prune, pull out, pull up, push down, reap, recap, recapitulate, reduce, representation, res gestae, restrict, retard, retrench, roll, runty, shave, shear, shorten, sideslip, skid, slapstick, slow, snub, spin, spiral, stage business, stage directions, stage presence, step, stop, stroke, sum up, summarize, suppress, synopsize, take in, taking a role, telescope, thing, thing done, tour de force, transaction, trick, trim, truncate, turn, undertaking, undulate, work, works, yaw