Meaning
To fit or suit exactly and perfectly, with nothing loose or forced. Used literally of garments and equipment that match the body's measurements precisely, and figuratively of roles, situations or arrangements that suit someone ideally. Neutral-to-admiring everyday register, applied equally to literal fit and abstract suitability. Regional use: General English (clothing origin).
Origin
The image needs no detective work: a glove is cut and sewn to mould to the hand, so it became the standard measure of an exact fit. The Phrase Finder, which notes the origin itself is undetermined, dates the earliest appearance in print to the mid-to-late 1700s, and the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms supplies the anchor citation: Tobias Smollett's Humphry Clinker (1771), 'The boots... fitted me like a glove'. Two points of honesty: first, the anchor's suggested earlier form 'fit like a tailor's something' could not be verified in any reference checked, and no earlier alternative comparison is documented, so it should be dropped; second, sources agree there is no hidden story beyond the literal snugness of made-to-measure gloves, which had been ordinary accessories for both sexes since the 1500s. Any claim of a deeper or older derivation would be invention.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- fit someone like a glove
- fits like a glove
- fitted like a glove
- like a glove (elliptical)
Usage Examples
- The costume department adjusted the jacket twice until it fitted her like a glove.
- The cottage fit us like a glove: two bedrooms, a stove and a mile of empty beach.
- He tried the new role on and it fit like a glove, though nobody had expected him to stay.