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  1. cilice love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A coarse cloth; haircloth.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Same as cilicium.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A hairshirt.
  2. n. A leather strap studded with metallic barbs that cut into flesh as a constant reminder of Christ's suffering.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A kind of haircloth undergarment.

Etymologies

  1. From French cilice, from Latin cilicium ("clothing made of goatskin"), from Cilicia where it originates from. (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Latin cilicium, a covering made of Cilician goat's hair, from Cilicia . (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “It's probably under the literary radar around here I hope, but "cilice" has gotten quite some use lately in The Da Vinci Code.”

    languagehat.com: MORE PYNCHONIAN VOCAB.

  • “Opus Dei weirdican Ruth Kelly was unavailable for religious comment, as she was playing with her cilice, but BBC Weather Girl Carol Kirkwood said, "We advise people not to travel, as getting a frog in the face at terminal velocity is not likely to make for a good day".”

    More Weather Warnings for the UK

  • “I thought I saw homage paid to the character of Silas Paul Bettany in The Davinci Code when Barnabus appears with a cilice wrapped around his right arm.”

    Caprica Episode 'Know Thy Enemy' is Transcendent

  • “Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and threw the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of wine and a bowl of meat broth in her hands.”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

  • “Donald Rumsfeld habitually wore a cilice when standing at his lectern to help him stay awake through 15 hour work days.”

    I win!

  • “I expect she will be tightening up her cilice tonight.”

    There's Talk Of Witch-Hunts

  • “If one actually sees a real cilice, you'll recognize that the "sharp spikes" are actually smooth points that remind the wearer of their presence, but could never break the skin.”

    Archive 2006-06-01

  • “Not, in fact, a sexy, sadomasochistic cult, Opus Dei was described inaccurately and to the extreme, for example, the spiked bloody cilice of Silas used to horrify readers and audience members.”

    Archive 2006-06-01

  • “Pope Paul VI, for example, was said to wear a cilice a device worn around the thigh and intended to cause discomfort on occasion, and Catholics have long regarded the stigmata as a sign of special favor.”

    So much for moderation.

  • “And the fact that it was even written at all now enables me to see Paul Bettany playing a celibate albino monk who insists on a cilice belt or thorns around his loins in the upcoming movie.”

    Archive 2006-01-01

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same context (22)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. 28-round
  2. ell
  3. bark-like
  4. narrowish
  1. force-screen
  2. brass-studded
  3. latitudinal
  4. disc-like
  1. silver-buckled
  2. silver-worked
  3. gem-studded
  4. tooled-leather
  1. snatcher
  2. 12-round
  3. metal-studded
  4. nail-studded
  1. mass-production
  2. pants
  3. hip-hugging
  4. sub-himalayan
  1. restrainer
  2. thousand-mile

reverse dictionary (1)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. cilicium

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. religion
  1. historical
  1. penance

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘cilice’.

Comments

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  • chained_bear "'My shirt is like a cilice with the salt. I should wear it dirty and reasonably soft, but that Killick takes it away ... and flings it into the sea-water tub...'"
    --O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 81 Mar 14, 2008

  • mollusque Haircloth; a hairshirt or undergarment made of haircloth. Dec 28, 2007

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‘cilice’ has been looked up 1982 times, loved by 2 people, added to 12 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.