cilice

American  

[sil-is] / ˈsɪl ɪs /

noun

1. a garment of haircloth formerly worn by monks; a hair shirt.

2. haircloth.

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cilice British  

/ ˈsɪlɪs /

noun

1. a haircloth fabric or garment

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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

One Peruvian candidate has taken time to talk about his habit of wearing a wire chain, known as a cilice, every day to flagellate himself.

From Washington Times

Skin pocked in itchy bites had become my own full-body cilice.

From New York Times

No; the cell was vacant, and there were the hermit's great ivory crucifix, his pens, ink, seeds, and memento mori, a skull; his cilice of hair, and another of bristles; his well-worn sheepskin pelisse and hood, his hammer, chisel, and psaltery, &c.

From Project Gutenberg

On this he rose slowly and took off his wet things, and moaning all the time at the pain he had caused her he loved, put on the old hermit's cilice of bristles, and over that his breastplate.

From Project Gutenberg

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