hair shirt
Use Hair shirt in a sentencehair shirt
noun
1.
a garment of coarse haircloth, worn next to the skin as a penance by ascetics and penitents.
2.
self-imposed punishment, suffering, sacrifice, or penance.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To hair shirt
Collins
World English Dictionary
| hair shirt | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a shirt made of haircloth worn next to the skin as a penance |
| 2. | a secret trouble or affliction |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Hair shirt
is always a great word to know.
So is zedonk. Does it mean:
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. |
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases
hair shirt
A self-imposed punishment or penance, as in I apologized a dozen times
do you want me to wear a hair shirt forever? This term, mentioned from the 13th century on, alludes to wearing a coarse, scratchy hair shirt, the practice of religious ascetics. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1800s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Example sentences
Old wives tales and hair shirt shibboleths are dark age economics which will reintroduce dark age societies.
She wore continually a hair shirt, and a girdle of horse-hair.
Under his episcopal ornaments he wore a rough hair shirt, and had no better covering to his bed than sackcloth.
We will cheerfully wear our brothers as a hair shirt and go with our duty.
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
