noun
1. : a shirt made of coarse rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance
led him … to give himself to fasting, a hair shirt, and prayer — K.S.Latourette
2. : one that flagellates : scourge
the hair shirt of duty — L.D.Lewis
uncomfortable to live with — a regular hair shirt of a man — E.B.White
• hairshirted adjective