-
- To save this word, you'll need to log in.
hair shirt
noun
1
: a shirt made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance
2
: one that irritates like a hair shirt
Synonyms
Examples of hair shirt in a Sentence
the constant need to cut costs was a hair shirt, but one that the theater company had to live with
Recent Examples on the Web
Talking about wedding vows was like donning a hair shirt.
—Leslie Jamison, The New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2024
The novel aesthetic of Art Nouveau wrapped modernism in the garb of pleasure, instead of in the hair shirt of social obligation and moral uplift.
—Regina Cole, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2023
Few people’s utopia involves wearing a hair shirt and giving up culinary pleasures; utopia and sacrifice are, for many, antonyms.
—Jan Dutkiewicz, The New Republic, 20 Oct. 2022
This is a coming-of-age story in which the transition from adolescence to adulthood is akin to swapping one hair shirt for another.
—Jake Cline, Washington Post, 27 May 2022
Aiden needs neither hair shirt nor whip to self-flagellate, and Simone writes of depression with a visceral ache.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 11 Nov. 2021
To toughen it up, Ford resorted to that longtime crossover hair shirt, the roof rack.
—Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 6 July 2020
Asking billions of people to don an unwashed hair shirt wouldn’t work; the solution would have to be rapid technological innovation.
—Jon Gertner, Wired, 1 Apr. 2020
Even a hair shirt worn voluntarily is uncomfortable.
—Aaron Timms, The New Republic, 27 Jan. 2020
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of
Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback
about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Time Traveler
The first known use of hair shirt was
in the 14th century
Dictionary Entries Near hair shirt
Cite this Entry
“Hair shirt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hair%20shirt. Accessed 15 Nov. 2024.
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share