hair shirt

noun

Definition of hair shirt

1 : a shirt made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance
2 : one that irritates like a hair shirt

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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

On the evidence in these pages, a hair shirt will not be in Sunstein’s future. Aaron Timms, The New Republic, "The Sameness of Cass Sunstein," 20 June 2019

First Known Use of hair shirt

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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