[f. STUNT v.1]
1. A check in growth; also, a state of arrested growth or development.
1795. Trans. Soc. Arts, XIII. 166. If it [a tree] takes a stunt.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Stunt, a check in growth. Ex. ‘That tree has got a stunt.’
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 143. The compressed nature struggles through at every crevice, but can never get the cramp and stunt out of it.
1894. G. M. Gould, Illustr. Dict. Med., etc., Stunt, a stunted or undeveloped state. Ibid., s.v. Cram, Cram-stunt, arrest in mental development due to over-study.
1899. Rider Haggard, in Longman’s Mag., Oct., 547. They suffer from mildew or stunt of one kind or another.
2. A creature that has been hindered from attaining full growth or development; spec. (see quot. 1858).
1725. Dudley, Whales, in Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 257. At two Years old, they [sc. whales] are called Stunts, being stunted after weaning.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stunts, a name for young whales of two years old, which, having been weaned, are lean.
1894. N. & Q., 8th Ser. VI. 337/2. The streets are filled with stunts and runts.
3. dial. A fit of sulkiness or obstinacy; in phr. to take (the) stunt.
This use of the phrase is perh. a fig. application of that in quot. 1795, sense 1. But cf. STRUNT sb.2
1837. Hood, Blue Boar, 34. Now at a line he gave a grunt, Now at a phrase took sudden stunt.
1862. C. C. Robinson, Dial. Leeds, 424. Tuke t’ stunt an’ went off wi’art speiking.
1890. Sat. Rev., 12 April, 446/2. The most probable explanation of his [Ld. Geo. Sackville’s] inaction on that occasion [battle of Minde] is that he simply ‘took stunts,’ as the Yorkshire phrase has it—a case of sheer sulkiness, not of cowardice.
