hair shirt

American  

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.

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hair shirt British  

noun

1. a shirt made of haircloth worn next to the skin as a penance

2. a secret trouble or affliction

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hair shirt Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of hair shirt

1350–1400; cf. hair

Example Sentences

And that gave birth to the worst Wolverine, which also gave birth to the idea that the suit is a hair shirt.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2024

“You don’t have to be vegan or take cold showers or wear a hair shirt, but just consuming less things is really helpful for the environment,” she said.

From Seattle Times • Sep. 23, 2022

Sounds like all that's missing from the Noem celebration is a hair shirt and a lecture about how Cardi B will destroy the West with her decadence.

From Salon • Nov. 24, 2020

Such untraditional content is a survival strategy for glossies with a Y chromosome tilt in this homo novus era, where every reference to masculinity wears an implied “toxic” like a hair shirt.

From New York Times • Nov. 2, 2019

Leah took it all—bones, teeth, scalp—and knitted herself something like a hair shirt.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver