Meaning

noun a difficult or unusual or dangerous feat; usually done to gain attention

noun a creature (especially a whale) that has been prevented from attaining full growth

verb check the growth or development of

originFrom 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0