What actually meant by the saying, " A stitch in time saves nine?

Question

While expecting a specific work to be done in a stipulated time, we often use the saying, " A STITCH IN TIME SAVES NINE". Let me please know, how this saying developed and the story behind it.

Answer 1

What do we stitch? We stich fabric.



What this means is that if you stitch a hole in time, you will save yourself from having to stitch more later on when the hole got bigger. The "nine" refers to nine other stitches. The number was used to make it rhyme.



So "A stitch in time saves nine ." is what the saying means. In other words, take care of the problem right away and you'll have less work to do later on to repair it.

Answer 2

A stitch in time saves nine.

Meaning.

A timely effort will prevent more work later.



The 'stitch in time' notion has been current in English for a very long time and is first recorded in Thomas Fuller's Gnomologia, Adagies and Proverbs, Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British, 1732:As far as is known, the first person to state unambiguously that 'a stitch in time saves nine', rather than Fuller's less confident 'may save nine', was the English astronomer Francis Baily, in his Journal, written in 1797 and published in 1856 by Augustus De Morgan:



After a little while we acquired a method of keeping her [a boat] in the middle of the stream, by watching the moment she began to vary, and thereby verifying the vulgar proverb, '"A stitch in time saves nine."

Answer 3

I mean if there is a small tear in clothes and you ignore it and postpone mending or sewing it, the tear will get bigger and will take more stitches than just a one small one that could have mended that small one.



so a Stitch in times saves you from doing nine more if you postpone that one stitch!

Answer 4

Im not sure but it seems to mean, you have to do something about a problem at once, but considering wise decision for it, before it gets worse. This will save time and prevent worse scenarios. It's like "prevention is better than cure".



I hope this helps.