1834 Spectator 29 Mar. 286/1 This is a miserable plight for le grande nation. Bastinadoed in the street by the Police—laughed at to side-splitting by its Representatives [etc.].

1854 Chamber's Repos. Tracts VIII. 12 If you had told them so, they would have laughed to side-splitting at the idea.

1881 Daily Tel. 27 Dec. This..past master of the art of side-splitting.

2002 Daily Mirror 31 May (‘The Ticket’ Suppl.) 12/2 Rupert [was] of the age where rude noises lead immediately to hysterical side-splitting.

1822 Observer of Times 14 July The Agreeable Surprise is a model of a farce. It is of the most grotesque formation, and..is filled with that genuine, spleen-dispersing, side-splitting humour, which is suited to all tastes and capacities.

1829 Spectator 30 May 345/2 His changes are of wonderful rapidity, and some of his personations of side-splitting drollery.

1881 Harper's Mag. July 266 No matter how side-splitting the story might be.

1939 Airman's Gaz. Dec. 7/2 All aircraft off duty being allowed to..view the stupendous, side-splitting entertainment.

1960 K. J. Shapiro In Def. of Ignorance 212 It is one of the most side-splitting and yet painful tales I have ever read.

2008 Times 4 Apr. (Times2 section) 4/4 Many of the sketches were mildly funny, just a few were side-splitting, and frankly much of the rest was low-grade slapstick.

1825 in W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1826) I. 1512 Starkey was dumb-founded, his associate was in agonies, and the butler was convulsed with the most ‘side-splitting’ laughter.

1863 Atlantic Monthly Mar. 281/2 Wilson and Lockhart together contributed most of the remainder [of the article], amidst side-splitting guffaws, in a session in the house of the Dowager Wilson.

1910 Pearson's Mag. Nov. 680/1 Buncombe has won, and there are smiles and side-splitting haw-haws as the ‘ayes’ outswell the ‘noes.’

1963 N.Y. Times 15 Mar. 8/1 The major complaint against the new play..is that it doesn't provide enough rest periods between side-splitting laughs.

2002 C. Hamlett Screen Teen Writers xiv. 216 These are the kind of letters that make agents roll on the floor in fits of side-splitting laughter.

1859 Dundee Courier 29 June His maudlin sentiments and strange epithets of endearment, are side-splittingly ludicrous.

1894 ‘M. O'Rell’ John Bull & Co. 2 I have seen French people laugh side-splittingly.

1907 A. Bennett Grim Smile of Five Towns 7 Something side-splittingly funny—one of the best jokes that ever occurred.

1923 Daily Mail 21 May 4 Mr. George Graves..has never gagged more side-splittingly..than he gags in the revival of ‘The Merry Widow’.

2005 Men's Health (U.K. ed.) June 36/1 The canned laughter..might suggest that falling down the stairs and smashing into a cupboard is side-splittingly funny.