Meanings
- idiomaticLaughing vigorously; very amused; aching due to convulsive laughter.
"I was just dancing with old Doctor Riley, and he kept me in stitches. Half the time he had almost to carry me around, I was laughing so."
1918, Laura Lee Hope, chapter 15, in The Outdoor Girls in Army Service2 more examples
Leaving the White House after a unilateral chat with Coolidge, Actress Barrymore, in stitches from laughter, was confronted by perplexed newsmen wondering what was so funny.
1955 May 15, “People”, in TimeI took a graduate seminar in close-reading of Dylan Thomas and Joyce, and among the smart students a nun and a rabbi kept us in stitches with their endless whimsy and scholarship.
2004, Willis Barnstone, We Jews and Blacks, →ISBN, page 59Synonyms: in hysterics
Synonyms & antonyms
prepositional phraseLaughing vigorously; very amused; aching due to convulsive laughter.
Translations
Finnish kippurassa
- kippurassalaughing vigorously
French mort de rire, plié en deux
- mort de rirelaughing vigorously
- plié en deuxlaughing vigorously
- plié en quatrelaughing vigorously
- pliélaughing vigorously
Irish in arraingeacha
- in arraingeachalaughing vigorously
Cite this entry
in stitches. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20stitches
“in stitches.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20stitches. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in stitches,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20stitches.
Source: in stitches on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.