A hair shirt is a shirt made of rough uncomfortable cloth which some religious people used to wear to punish themselves.
He was sent barefoot wearing only a hair shirt into the wilderness as a penance.
2. countable noun
If you say that someone is wearing a hair shirt, you mean that they are trying to punish themselves to show they are sorry for something they have done.
No one is asking you to put on a hair shirt and give up all your luxuries.
hair shirt in British English
noun
1.
a shirt made of haircloth worn next to the skin as a penance
2.
a secret trouble or affliction
hair shirt in American English
a shirt of haircloth, worn over the skin as a penance
Examples of 'hair shirt' in a sentence
hair shirt
He specifies that every sister should be issued at least two tunics and a hair shirt.