Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A shirt made of haircloth; a cilice; especially one worn by ascetics or the penitent
  • adjective Advocating or adopting a relatively ascetic lifestyle, especially for environmentalist reasons.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

hair +‎ shirt

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Examples

  • I would call a kind of hairshirt need, a-- a need to kind of punish himself in -- in living in very, very difficult ways.

    Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation 2001

  • Amidst a general acceptance of the cash crisis afflicting the ICA as an accident of the recession, and a rush into headlong 'hairshirt' institutional self-critique as a means to deflect real scrutiny, JJ Charlesworth uncovers a catalogue of avoidable mistakes and the free-market, lifestyle thinking behind them

    Mute magazine - Culture and politics after the net - CULTURE AND POLITICS AFTER THE NET mute 2010

  • Amidst a general acceptance of the cash crisis afflicting the ICA as an accident of the recession, and a rush into headlong 'hairshirt' institutional self-critique as a means to deflect real scrutiny, JJ Charlesworth uncovers a catalogue of avoidable mistakes and the free-market, lifestyle thinking behind them

    Mute magazine - Culture and politics after the net - CULTURE AND POLITICS AFTER THE NET 2010

  • That doesn't mean "hairshirt" environmentalism, where the goal is for neo-puritans to denounce people for immorality and trumpet their own superiority.

    Instapundit Glenn Reynolds 2010

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole 2008

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole 2008

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole Miss Fitz 2008

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole 2008

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole 2008

  • 'hairshirt' FF budgets, this has come after a time of plenty and during a period where peoples expectations - rightly - have increased.

    Slugger O'Toole 2008

Comments

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  • originally a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair (a hairshirt), worn to induce some degree of discomfort or pain usually as an act of penance or as a form of corporal mortification

    a type of cilice

    Seen also as hair shirt

    January 22, 2008

  • a term for "guilt trip"...wearing one's hairshirt

    January 22, 2008