Obs. exc. dial. Also 3 stunnt (Ormin), 5 stont. [OE. stunt foolish, corresp. to MHG. stunz stubbed, short, ON. stutt-r (earlier *stunt-r = MSw. stunt-er) short:—OTeut. *stunto- short, truncated, perh. repr. pre-Teut. *stṃdo-, f. root *stem-; cf. STUMP sb.
In OE. only in fig. sense (cf. ‘short-witted’); the lit. sense may have existed unrecorded, but more prob. senses 2–4 are from Scandinavian. With sense 3 cf. SHORT a. 10.]
† 1. Foolish, stupid. Obs.
c. 960. Rule St. Benet (Schröer), vii. 30. Se stunta on lehtre his stefne ʓeuferað.
c. 1200. Ormin, 3714. Wiþþ mannkinn þatt wass stunnt, & dill, & skilllæs swa summ asse.
† 2. Short in duration. Obs.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, i. (1906), 4. [He] yeuithe longe lyff and stont [Fr. longue vie et courte] in this terreyn.
3. Obstinate, stubborn; rudely or angrily curt or blunt. (Chiefly applied to persons.) Now only dial.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, VII. 123. This speech so stunt and sodaine sayed yeelds all the troupe abasht.
1674. Ray, N. C. Words, Stunt, Lincoln. stubborn, fierce, angry.
1788. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh., II. 357. Stunt; stubborn; not easy to be bent; as, a ‘stunt child,’ a stubborn child.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Stunt, Stunty, short, blunt, crusty; unmannerly.
1869. Tennyson, North. Farmer, New Style, v. Do’ant be stunt: taäke time; I knaws what maäkes tha sa mad.
4. Stunted. a. Short and thick. b. Dwarfed in growth.
a. 1788. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh., II. 357. A ‘stunt stick,’ a thick short stick.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvii. 147. The smoke of the stunt gray chimney.
b. 1819. Keats, Fall of Hyperion, I. 293. Side by side we stood (Like a stunt bramble by a solemn pine).
1845. Thackeray, Cornhill to Cairo, v. 48. A stunt district of olive trees is almost the only vegetation.
5. Of a turn, bend, end: Abrupt.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1861), II. 431/2. In case we comes to a stunt end where there’s a wall and no place for ’em to get away,… they [sc. rats in a sewer] fly at us.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., Stunt,… blunt, abrupt: as a ‘stunt turn,’ that is, an abrupt bend, one at right angles.
6. Comb.: stunt-head Engineering, the vertical timbered end of a trench which has been excavated for the purpose of laying a sewer or a water-main.
