“In Stitches”
💭 Meaning
To have or leave “in stitches” is to be laughing so hard you can barely stop, to the point of being doubled over.
✍️ Examples
Henry had his student in stitches when he read aloud the most clichéd essay openers he'd collected over the years.
The info session speaker told one story about a lost transcript and had the whole room in stitches.
Henry sent back an unexpected margin note on the essay draft that left his student in stitches.
📜 Origin
The phrase is tied to the “stitch," the sharp cramp-like pain in your side that comes from running or laughing too hard. That sense of the word goes back centuries, and Shakespeare used a close version in Twelfth Night (around 1602), when a character invites others to “laugh yourselves into stitches." The shorter “in stitches" took hold in English later, becoming a common way to describe uncontrollable laughter by the early 20th century. It's sometimes confused with the sewing meaning of “stitches," but the side-ache is the real root. The exact first use of “in stitches" is hard to pin down.
