split one's sides, to
split one's sides (with laughter)
Fig. to laugh so hard that one's sides almost split. (Always an exaggeration.) The members of the audience almost split their sides with laughter. When I heard what happened to Patricia, I almost split my sides.
See also: side, split
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
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.
split one's sides
To laugh heartily.
See also: side, split
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
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
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- almost never
- give (one) heart failure
- give someone heart failure
- have heart failure
- look for all the world like
- look for all the world like (someone or something)
- almost lost it
- in one ear and out the other
- a cattle market
- as near as dammit