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.

---

hair shirt British  

noun

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

2. a secret trouble or affliction

---

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.

---

Etymology

Origin of hair shirt

1350–1400; cf. hair

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hair shirt

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

The I.O.C. has grown edgy at the lack of suitors seeking to host Games and proclaimed itself ready to shed the tux and don the hair shirt.

From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2018

“The penance was to wear the hair shirt of a certain dead religious that we knew of,” he went on at last, defeated.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---