noun
Etymology
Origin of cilice
before 950; < Middle French; replacing Old English cilic < Latin cilicium < Greek kilíkion, neuter of kilíkios Cilician, so called because first made of Cilician goathair
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.
Nearly a third of the lay members are “numeraries,” who commit to lifelong celibacy and to acts of mortification, like the daily wearing of a cilice, a small spiked garter that can puncture the skin.
From New York Times • Jan. 12, 2012
To check it again I put off the cilice, and with it all other undergarments, retaining no more clothing than just the rough brown monkish habit.
From The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina in the state of Piacenza by Sabatini, Rafael
That other sinful longing, she entirely effaced at last, thereby achieving something that had been impossible to prayers and fasting, to scourge and cilice.
From The Strolling Saint; being the confessions of the high and mighty Agostino D'Anguissola, tyrant of Mondolfo and Lord of Carmina in the state of Piacenza by Sabatini, Rafael
"O marriage-beauty garlanded For festival, O sumptuous flowery stole For rites of adoration!"�See instead A cilice drenched with torment of my soul!
From The Hours of Fiammetta A Sonnet Sequence by Taylor, Rachel Annand
Ah! silver wedding-garment of the bride, Ah! fiery cilice, I am satisfied!
From The Hours of Fiammetta A Sonnet Sequence by Taylor, Rachel Annand
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.
