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Synonyms

sackcloth and ashes

Idioms  

  1. Mourning or penitence, as in What I did to Julie's child was terrible, and I've been in sackcloth and ashes ever since. This term refers to the ancient Hebrew custom of indicating humility before God by wearing a coarse cloth, normally used to make sacks, and dusting oneself with ashes. In English it appeared in William Tyndale's 1526 biblical translations (Matthew 11:21), “They [the cities Tyre and Sidon] had repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

One common answer notes that sackcloth and ashes have been since biblical times a sign of repentance.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026

"I don't think he should do sackcloth and ashes, I think that's overdoing it," she told a Sky News podcast.

From BBC • Sep. 19, 2024

I would absolutely beg on my hands and knees in the Senate chamber or anywhere else, in sackcloth and ashes and on broken glass, if I thought it would help.

From Los Angeles Times • May 25, 2022

The donning of sackcloth and ashes for this once-mighty art form is an annual ritual.

From New York Times • Sep. 5, 2016

“Why’d you have to raise this up from the dead, anyhow? You go’n put the past on and wear it like sackcloth and ashes the rest a-yore days?”

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.