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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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impetus

play

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