Hairshirt

Quick meaning: Hairshirt is a noun meaning A shirt made of haircloth; especially one worn by ascetics or the penitent.

Meaning

A shirt made of haircloth; especially one worn by ascetics or the penitent.

More Meanings

1. (figurative) A state of penitence and humility.
2. (relational) Advocating or adopting a relatively ascetic lifestyle, especially for environmentalist reasons.

Example Sentences

The gloomy contentions of “hairshirt economists” who want more public and less private spending were assailed today by Robert W. Sarnoff, chairman of the National Broadcasting Company.

And when he went on to say, “The curse must be within ourselves,” Muir bequeathed us a hairshirt: the guilty conscience that plagues so many of us when we see what we are doing to the rest of nature.

He is practically a total abstainer and I can affirm that he sleeps on a straw litter and eats the most Spartan food, cold dried grocer’s peas. He wears a hairshirt winter and summer and scourges himself every Saturday.

Boris Johnson has called on the government to drop its "hair shirt, Stafford Cripps" agenda as he outlined a seven-point growth plan for London involving building thousands of new homes and investment in major infrastructure projects.

Word Forms

• hairshirts
• hair shirt
• hair-shirt

Synonyms for hairshirt

Depending on context, synonyms include cilice, sackcloth.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include hair shirt, hair, haircloth, shairl, camelhair, habit.

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