HAIR SHIRT Synonyms: 56 Similar and Opposite Words

hair shirt

noun

Definition of hair shirt

as in headache

something that is a source of irritation the constant need to cut costs was a hair shirt, but one that the theater company had to live with

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hair shirt Four years later, an America-first cultural crackdown has freed the Met to cast off the hair shirt of reckoning and celebrate its diverse holdings in a spirit of defiance. — Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 30 June 2025 And that gave birth to the worst Wolverine, which also gave birth to the idea that the suit is a hair shirt. — Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2024 Erin Maglaque’s review of a new book on women and sound in Renaissance Italy peels back the layers of a less-talked about form of religious asceticism and control, one where there are no hair shirts or decade-long fasts, just… silence. — Michelle Weber, Longreads, 15 Nov. 2024 The novel aesthetic of Art Nouveau wrapped modernism in the garb of pleasure, instead of in the hair shirt of social obligation and moral uplift. — Regina Cole, Forbes, 1 Jan. 2023 Few people’s utopia involves wearing a hair shirt and giving up culinary pleasures; utopia and sacrifice are, for many, antonyms. — Jan Dutkiewicz, The New Republic, 20 Oct. 2022

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hair shirt

Noun

The biggest headache for Thune was the Save America Act, a voter ID bill that lacked a strategy to become law in the Senate.

— semafor.com, semafor.com, 16 Oct. 2026
In Meta’s case, creepy video-recording incidents and privacy-light tampering have caused severe headaches for the company.

— Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of headache

Noun

The Dodgers have been a thorn in the Brewers side, but this season feels a bit different.

— OutKick, FOXNews.com, 14 Oct. 2026
Cue an enthralling chase sequence, doubling back through those higgledy-piggledy Portland streetscapes, toward the woods — the impenetrable thickets and thorns of which magically part in her presence.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of thorn

Noun

In August, the health board designated a $250,000 fund for rat abatement — so far the only public money in Idaho specifically earmarked to combat the nuisance.

— Mark Dee, Idaho Statesman, 16 Oct. 2026
The tablet takes a good 20 to 30 seconds to boot up from that state, which is a nuisance compared with the instant wake-up from sleep mode.

— Will Greenwald, PC Magazine, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of nuisance

Noun

Demonstrators expressed widespread frustration and anger at the government as gasoline, energy and food prices have spiked in recent months.

— SYLVIE CORBET, Arkansas Online, 18 Oct. 2026
That's despite voter frustration over high prices and the Iran war, and his own challenge of leading one of narrowest House majorities in modern times.

— ABC News, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2026

Definition of frustration

Noun

Melanie Lawrence, a 68-year-old independent, worries about wells going dry in her area near Willcox, where the groundwater grew so depleted that the land started to crack.

— Hannah Knowles The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 19 Oct. 2026
In an interview earlier this fall with NPR, Los Angeles County's top voting official, Dean Logan, alluded to those worries.

— Miles Parks, NPR, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of worry

Browse Nearby Words

hairs

hair shirt

hair shirts

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Hair shirt.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hair%20shirt. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of hair shirt

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

jilt

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Popular

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes