There’s a more extreme version – “stitched up like a kipper”.
If you’re not familiar, a kipper is a smoked herring, which is removed of guts and head (but not skin or tail) and opened out to a rough fan shape before curing. They’re not stitched back together though, so the expression doesn’t make a lot of sense at face value.
The “stitched up” part comes from the fact that after being gutted the kipper is hung up with string (stitched up) so as to be able to hang on a rail with many others to be smoked over a smoky fire.
i.e., completely conned by a cunning person and “stitched up” so you cannot do a thing about it!
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Moley:
October 5th, 2015 at 9:03 am
There’s a more extreme version – “stitched up like a kipper”.
If you’re not familiar, a kipper is a smoked herring, which is removed of guts and head (but not skin or tail) and opened out to a rough fan shape before curing. They’re not stitched back together though, so the expression doesn’t make a lot of sense at face value.
More explanations here:
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/60260/what-is-the-origin-of-stitched-up-like-a-kipper
tom:
December 8th, 2021 at 9:11 am
The “stitched up” part comes from the fact that after being gutted the kipper is hung up with string (stitched up) so as to be able to hang on a rail with many others to be smoked over a smoky fire.
i.e., completely conned by a cunning person and “stitched up” so you cannot do a thing about it!