Stitched

How to spell stitched

8 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stitched

What does stitched mean?

1. verbJoined, mended, or decorated by passing thread through fabric with a needle.
2. adjectiveHeld together or assembled, often loosely, as if sewn from separate parts.

Stitched in a sentence

• verb

  The tailor stitched a small patch over the torn pocket.

• adjective

  The report felt hastily stitched together from several old drafts.

• verb

  She stitched her initials into the corner of the handkerchief.

• adjective

  The quilt was beautifully stitched from dozens of fabric squares.

Where does stitched come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word goes back to the Old English noun stice, which meant 'a prick, a puncture, or a sudden sharp pain', the same root that survives in the modern 'stitch' you feel as a stabbing ache in your side after running. That noun came from a Proto-Germanic root meaning 'to pierce or sting', and it is related to the German word stechen, 'to prick'. Because sewing involves repeatedly piercing cloth with a needle, the sense slid naturally from 'a puncture' to 'a loop of thread made by passing a needle through fabric', a meaning recorded from around the 1300s. The verb 'to stitch', meaning to fasten or join with such loops, grew out of this noun, and 'stitched' is simply its regular past tense. The spelling keeps the older 'tch' cluster that English uses after a short vowel, and the trap is remembering both the silent linking and the final '-ched' rather than writing it as 'stiched'.

How the word is built

• stitch (root, from Old English stice: a prick or puncture)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)