sackcloth and ashes
IdiomsExample 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.
