stitch in time, a

Idioms and Phrases

A prompt action will avert more serious trouble. For example, Changing the car's oil every 7,000 miles is a stitch in time . The complete form of this adage, a stitch in time saves nine , appeared in Thomas Fuller's 1732 proverb collection, Gnomologia , and is so well known that it often is stated in shortened form. Ogden Nash played with it in the title for his verse collection, A Stitch Too Late Is My Fate (1938).