hair shirt

n.
A coarse haircloth garment worn next to the skin by religious ascetics as penance.

A self-imposed punishment or penance, as in I apologized a dozen times--do you want me to wear a hair shirt forever? This term, mentioned from the 13th century on, alludes to wearing a coarse, scratchy hair shirt, the practice of religious ascetics. Its figurative use dates from the mid-1800s.

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IN BRIEF: adj. - Self-sacrificing or austere.

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The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: an uncomfortable shirt made of coarse animal hair; worn next to the skin as a penance

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