stitch
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: stĭch
ipa: /stɪt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -ɪtʃ
Forms: form: stitches
form: stich
Etymology: From Middle English stiche, from Old English stiċe (“a prick, puncture, stab, thrust with a pointed implement, pricking sensation, stitch, pain in the side, sting”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiki, from Proto-Germanic *stikiz (“prick, piercing, stitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to stab, pierce”).
Cognate with Dutch steek (“prick, stitch”), German Stich (“a prick, piercing, stitch”), Old English stician (“to stick, stab, pierce, prick”). More at stick. Via PIE cognate with Czech steh, Polish ścieg, Russian стежо́к (stežók).
Senses: glosses: A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.
examples: text: cross stitch
text: herringbone stitch
glosses: An arrangement of stitches in sewing, or method of stitching in some particular way or style.
examples: text: I've got a stitch. I'm going to have to stop and rest.
text: After about fifteen minutes I got terrible stitch.
glosses: An intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage, brought on by exercise or laughing.
examples: text: a stitch in the side
text: He was the next day taken with an oppreſſion, and as it ſeemed with a cold and with ſtitches, which was indeed a pluriſy.
ref: a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, “Book III. Of the Rest of King Charles II’s Reign, from the Year 1673 to the Year 1685, in which He Died.”, in [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], editor, Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC, page 588:
text: Violent continuous stitch in the region of the heart, the stitches multiplied when arresting the breathing. […] Feeling of heaviness in the muscles of the neck; he is obliged to bend his neck backwards. Cramp-like pain in right muscles of the neck, terminating in a stitch; the pain went off after motion and returned afterwards. […] Dull stitches in the region of the haunch-bones; pressure on the parts causes a simple pain. […] Drawing stitch in the right thigh, not perceptible when standing or ascending an elevation.
ref: 1848, Gottlieb Heinrich Georg Jahr, New Manual; Or, Symptomen-codex, page 186 (1846, Samuel Hahnemann, Materia Medica Pura, page 73)
text: A sharp stitch in the left side of the head, on sitting down […] A sharp stitch in the upper part of the right side of the head, […]
ref: 1878, Timothy Field Allen, The Encyclopedia of pure materia medica v. 8, 1878, page 291:
glosses: A local sharp pain (anywhere); an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle.
examples: text: drop a stitch
text: take up a stitch
glosses: A single turn of the thread round a needle in knitting; a link, or loop, of yarn
glosses: An arrangement of stitches in knitting, or method of knitting in some particular way or style.
glosses: A space of work taken up, or gone over, in a single pass of the needle.
glosses: A fastening, as of thread or wire, through the back of a book to connect the pages.
examples: text: [Y]ou have gone a good ſtitch, you may well be a weary; ſit down.
ref: 1684, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress. From This World to That which is to Come: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress as Originally Published by John Bunyan: Being a Fac-simile Reproduction of the First Edition, London: Elliot Stock […], 1875, →OCLC, page 148:
glosses: Any space passed over; distance.
examples: text: If you talke / Or pull your face into a ſtich againe, / As I love truth I ſhall be very angry.
ref: 1609–1612, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Captaine”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 54, column 2:
glosses: A contortion, or twist.
examples: text: to wet every stitch of clothes
text: She didn’t have a stitch (of clothing) on.
text: "Why, it's you that are stripping me," replied the Ogress, "and you have not left a stitch on me." "Where the devil is the quilt?" says the Ogre[.]
ref: 1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 237:
text: I would go out tonight / But I haven't got a stitch to wear
ref: 1983, “This Charming Man”, Johnny Marr, Morrissey (lyrics), performed by The Smiths:
glosses: Any least part of a fabric or clothing.
examples: text: Now plow down your Weat-stitches, by running the Two-wheel Fallow-Plough three or four times through each Stitch, which will almost level the Ground;
ref: 1750, William Ellis, “Of Plowings preparatory for Sofing Lent Crops of Grain, &c. in Chilturn Grounds”, in The Modern Husbandman - Volume 4, page 42:
text: About DUNSTABLE they plow much in Stitches : and in Essex some very good Farmers practise this Method with very great Success; making five Stitches when they come to sow, which five make a Perch, so that between every two Stitches there is a Thorough a Foot wide.
ref: 1757, Thomas Hale, “Of Tillage”, in A compleat body of husbandry, page 241:
text: […]for your oxen choose Two males of nine years old, for then their use Is most available, since their strengths are then Not of the weakest, and the youthful mean Sticks in their nerves still; nor will these contend With skittish tricks, when they their stitch should end, To break their plough, and leave their work undone.
ref: 1875, George Chapman, Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Works of George Chapman: Poems and Minor Translations, page 224:
glosses: A furrow.
glosses: The space between two double furrows.
examples: text: More than 19,000 people commented, along with more stitches than she could count, Sallee said.
ref: 2023 May 31, Tatum Hunter, “On TikTok, women get real about the pitfalls of motherhood”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2023:
text: One answer that appeared in multiple comments and stitches was that women often think about the possibility of being victims of violence.
ref: 2023 September 20, Brittany Miller, “Women respond to viral TikTok prompt asking about ‘female version’ of male Roman Empire obsession”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Sep 2023:
text: The stitches, as they are called on TikTok, nearly always end in agreement that Ms. Vidal was right — store-bought pesto is indeed an inferior product.
ref: 2023 October 24, Remy Tumin, “She Made Pesto. People Started Spilling Their Secrets.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2023:
glosses: An incorporation of an existing video into a new one, resulting in a collaborative clip that shows the two videos in a sequence.
Derived terms: a stitch in time saves nine
backstitch
bean stitch
blanket stitch
blanket-stitch
blind stitch
box stitch
bread-stitch
brede-stitch
brick stitch
butterfly stitch
buttonhole stitch
cable stitch
catchstitch
chain stitch
Comanche stitch
coral stitch
couching stitch
couch stitch
counted cross-stitch
coverstitch
cross-stitch
daddy stitch
dip stitch
draw stitch
drop a stitch
edgestitch
fancy stitch
featherstitch
fell stitch
Flemish stitch
garter stitch
hemstitch
herringbone stitch
Holbein stitch
honeycomb stitch
husband's stitch
husband stitch
in stitches
kettle stitch
Kitchener stitch
ladder stitch
lock stitch
long and short stitch
moss stitch
overstitch
pad stitch
pearl stitch
purl stitch
pick stitch
pick up stitches
raccroc stitch
rib stitch
rice stitch
rope stitch
running stitch
Russian stitch
saddle stitch
satin stitch
seed stitch
shadow stitch
side stitch
slipstitch
slip stitch
snitches get stitches
snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches
spider stitch
split stitch
stab stitch
staystitch
stem stitch
stitch-back
stitchcraft
stitch drilling
stitchery
stitch in the ditch
stitchless
stitchlike
stitch-up
stitchwork
stitchwort
stockinette stitch
stocking stitch
straight stitch
take up a stitch
tent stitch
thorough-stitch
through-stitch
topstitch
wheatear stitch
wheel stitch
whipstitch
whip stitch
wholestitch