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Hair shirt   /hɛr ʃərt/   Listen
noun
Hair  n.  
1.
The collection or mass of filaments growing from the skin of an animal, and forming a covering for a part of the head or for any part or the whole of the body.
2.
One the above-mentioned filaments, consisting, in vertebrate animals, of a long, tubular part which is free and flexible, and a bulbous root imbedded in the skin. "Then read he me how Sampson lost his hairs." "And draweth new delights with hoary hairs."
3.
Hair (human or animal) used for various purposes; as, hair for stuffing cushions.
4.
(Zool.) A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
5.
(Bot.) An outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated. Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).
6.
A spring device used in a hair-trigger firearm.
7.
A haircloth. (Obs.)
8.
Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth. Note: Hairs is often used adjectively or in combination; as, hairbrush or hair brush, hair dye, hair oil, hairpin, hair powder, a brush, a dye, etc., for the hair.
Against the hair, in a rough and disagreeable manner; against the grain. (Obs.) "You go against the hair of your professions."
Hair bracket (Ship Carp.), a molding which comes in at the back of, or runs aft from, the figurehead.
Hair cells (Anat.), cells with hairlike processes in the sensory epithelium of certain parts of the internal ear.
Hair compass, Hair divider, a compass or divider capable of delicate adjustment by means of a screw.
Hair glove, a glove of horsehair for rubbing the skin.
Hair lace, a netted fillet for tying up the hair of the head.
Hair line, a line made of hair; a very slender line.
Hair moth (Zool.), any moth which destroys goods made of hair, esp. Tinea biselliella.
Hair pencil, a brush or pencil made of fine hair, for painting; generally called by the name of the hair used; as, a camel's hair pencil, a sable's hair pencil, etc.
Hair plate, an iron plate forming the back of the hearth of a bloomery fire.
Hair powder, a white perfumed powder, as of flour or starch, formerly much used for sprinkling on the hair of the head, or on wigs.
Hair seal (Zool.), any one of several species of eared seals which do not produce fur; a sea lion.
Hair seating, haircloth for seats of chairs, etc.
Hair shirt, a shirt, or a band for the loins, made of horsehair, and worn as a penance.
Hair sieve, a strainer with a haircloth bottom.
Hair snake. See Gordius.
Hair space (Printing), the thinnest metal space used in lines of type.
Hair stroke, a delicate stroke in writing.
Hair trigger, a trigger so constructed as to discharge a firearm by a very slight pressure, as by the touch of a hair.
Not worth a hair, of no value.
To a hair, with the nicest distinction.
To split hairs, to make distinctions of useless nicety.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Hair shirt" Quotes from Famous Books



... in the place of war and theology, meant the dawn of material prosperity, of the rule of law, and of a new intelligence diffused through the opinions and industries of men. Of this there is no better exposition than Sir Thomas More's "Utopia." More was a devout Catholic. He wore a hair shirt next his skin; he flogged himself; he gave his life for a theological principle. But he was also a Christian in a wider sense. He appreciated the importance to men of peace and happiness, as well as of orthodoxy. ...
— A History of English Prose Fiction • Bayard Tuckerman

... and give the seed a hold wherever it enters: the slightest touch gives it an entering motion, and the little hooks prevent its working out. These seeds are so abundant in some spots, that the inside of the stocking becomes worse than the roughest hair shirt. It is, however, an excellent self-sower, and fine fodder; it rises to the height of common meadow-grass in England, and would be a capital plant for spreading over a new country not so abundantly supplied with grasses as ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone

... of twelve years old, from a little lane at Abingdon that still bears his name. He found his school in an inn that belonged to the abbey of Eynsham where his father had taken refuge from the world. His mother was a pious woman of the day, too poor to give her boy much outfit besides the hair shirt that he promised to wear every Wednesday; but Edmund was no poorer than his neighbours. He plunged at once into the nobler life of the place, its ardour for knowledge, its mystical piety. "Secretly," perhaps at ...
— History of the English People, Volume I (of 8) - Early England, 449-1071; Foreign Kings, 1071-1204; The Charter, 1204-1216 • John Richard Green



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