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
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
And that gave birth to the worst Wolverine, which also gave birth to the idea that the suit is a hair shirt.
—
Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024
Erin Maglaque’s review of a new book on women and sound in Renaissance Italy peels back the layers of a less-talked about form of religious asceticism and control, one where there are no hair shirts or decade-long fasts, just… silence.
—Michelle Weber, Longreads, 15 Nov. 2024
And that gave birth to the worst Wolverine, which also gave birth to the idea that the suit is a hair shirt.
—Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024
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
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Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024
Erin Maglaque’s review of a new book on women and sound in Renaissance Italy peels back the layers of a less-talked about form of religious asceticism and control, one where there are no hair shirts or decade-long fasts, just… silence.
—Michelle Weber, Longreads, 15 Nov. 2024
And that gave birth to the worst Wolverine, which also gave birth to the idea that the suit is a hair shirt.
—Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024
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
Cite this Entry
“Hair shirt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hair%20shirt. Accessed 17 Apr. 2025.
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