[Leica] stitch-up

["Rod Fleming" <rodfleming@sol.co.uk>]

Hi

Gaifana (why don't you sign your posts?)wrote

>. What does this mean, "stitched up?"

Mmmm. Sort of "set up for the patsy". It's when someone performs a fait
accompli on you- manoeuvres you into a position you would rather not be in.

I have heard- and like a lot of these things this could be apocryphal, so
I'll stand corrected if this is wrong- that it comes from Royal Navy slang-
mariners will know that the practise following a death at sea is to sew the
deceased into a bolt of canvas sailcloth (modern warships, which lack sails,
carry the stuff for this reason) before heaving them over the side- so
"stitched up"- put somewhere you don't want to be and unable to do anything
about it. Whether or not the provenance is true, the sense is accurate.

Cheers

Rod