split one's sides

split (one's) sides

To laugh uproariously or hysterically. Your jokes are perfect for your speech tonight. You'll have them splitting their sides!

See also: side, split

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

split one's sides

Also, laugh one's head off. Be extremely amused, laugh uproariously. For example, That comedian had us splitting our sides, or Jane laughed her head off when she saw Rob's costume. The first of these hyperbolic terms dates from about 1700.

See also: side, split

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

split one's sides

To laugh heartily.

See also: side, split

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

split one's sides, to

To laugh uproariously. This hyperbole dates from the seventeenth century. Thomas Brown used it in Saints in Uproar (1687): “You’d break a man’s sides with laughing.” The word “split” came into use somewhat later. Dickens used it in The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), “He bade fair to split his sides with laughing,” and Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), “I laughed fit to split.” See also shake with laughter.

See also: split, to

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer