Why do we say “Fits like a glove”?

A good glove hugs every finger, so it became the gold standard for a perfect fit. Gloves were common for centuries, but the saying shows up in print in the 1700s. In Tobias Smollett’s 1771 comic novel Humphry Clinker, a man brags about boots “which fitted me like a glove.” Odd choice for feet, but the phrase stuck.