stitch

• enPR: stĭch, IPA^(key): /stɪt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

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-Germanic *stikiz (“prick, piercing, stitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *steg- (“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.

stitch (plural stitches)

1. A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.
2. An arrangement of stitches in sewing, or method of stitching in some particular way or style.

   cross stitch

   herringbone stitch

3. An intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage, brought on by exercise.
4. A single turn of the thread round a needle in knitting; a link, or loop, of yarn

   drop a stitch

   take up a stitch

5. An arrangement of stitches in knitting, or method of knitting in some particular way or style.
6. A space of work taken up, or gone over, in a single pass of the needle.
7. (by extension) Any space passed over; distance.
   • John Bunyan

     You have gone a good stitch.

   • Holland

     In Syria the husbandmen go lightly over with their plough, and take no deep stitch in making their furrows.

8. A local sharp pain; an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle.

   a stitch in the side

   • Gilbert Burnet

     He was taken with a cold and with stitches, which was, indeed, a pleurisy.

9. (obsolete) A contortion, or twist.
   • Marston

     If you talk, / Or pull your face into a stitch again, / I shall be angry.

10. (colloquial) Any least part of a fabric or dress.

    to wet every stitch of clothes

    She didn't have a stitch on.

11. A furrow.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Chapman to this entry?)

• draw stitch
• in stitches
• snitches get stitches

• snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches

• stitch drilling

From Middle English sticchen, stichen, from Old English *stiċċan, stiċċian, from Proto-Germanic *stikjaną (“to stab, stick, prick”), influenced by the noun (see above).

stitch (third-person singular simple present stitches, present participle stitching, simple past and past participle stitched)

1. To form stitches in; especially, to sew in such a manner as to show on the surface a continuous line of stitches.

   to stitch a shirt bosom.

2. To sew, or unite or attach by stitches.

   to stitch printed sheets in making a book or a pamphlet.

   • 2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph‎:

     With such focus from within the footballing community this week on Remembrance Sunday, there was something appropriate about Colchester being the venue for last night’s game. Troops from the garrison town formed a guard of honour for both sets of players, who emerged for the national anthem with poppies proudly stitched into their tracksuit jackets.

3. (intransitive) To practice/practise stitching or needlework.
4. (agriculture) To form land into ridges.
5. To weld together through a series of connecting or overlapping spot welds.
   • 2009, Jeffery Zurschmeide, Automotive Welding: A Practical Guide, →ISBN, page 44:

     You can prevent warping and get a very strong weld by stitching your pieces together.

   • 2014, James E. Duffy, Auto Body Repair Technology, →ISBN, page 239:

     For example, the butt joint can be welded with the continuous technique or the stitch technique.

   • 2017, Chellappa Chandrasekaran, Anticorrosive Rubber Lining: A Practical Guide for Plastics Engineers, →ISBN:

     Apply cement and stitch as necessary. A hot knife can be used to seal down loose seams.

6. (computing, graphics) To combine two or more photographs of the same scene into a single image.

   I can use this software to stitch together a panorama.

7. (more generally) To include, combine, or unite into a single whole.
   • 2011, Steve Nolan, Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion, →ISBN:

     Whereas liturgically, in the sacramental narrative of the Cross, worshippers are stitched into a salvation story, cinema spectators are stitched into a narrative in which the ordinary guy overcomes the Other in an extraordinary situation.

   • 2013, Peyton McCoy, Walk into Your Season: The Art of Cultural Work, →ISBN, page viii:

     However, it is the depth and breadth of your scholarship, your incisive and decisive writing, your numerous books exemplifying this masterful craftsmanship (I stopped counting after nineteen), your wit, and your relentless resolve to listen and get it right that are now stitched into my memories.

   • 2014, Susan Charnley, ‎Thomas E. Sheridan, ‎& Gary P. Nabhan, Stitching the West Back Together: Conservation of Working Landscapes, →ISBN, page xvi:

     Effective landscape-scale conservation thus calls for stitching the management of public, tribal, and private lands together using collaborative processes to achieve mutual social and ecological objectives.

• (form stitches in): sew
• (unite by stitches): sew, sew together, stitch together
• (form land into ridges): plough (British), plow (US)

• stitch at OneLook Dictionary Search
• stitch in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.