| Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary 1,506,153,366 visitors served. |
|
Dictionary/ thesaurus | Medical dictionary | Legal dictionary | Financial dictionary | Acronyms | Idioms | Encyclopedia | Wikipedia encyclopedia | ? |
sackcloth and ashes |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Encyclopedia | 0.29 sec. |
|
sackcloth and ashes (slightly formal) if you wear sackcloth and ashes, you show by your behaviour that you are very sorry for something you did wrong Usage notes: In the past, clothes made of sackcloth (= a rough cloth) were worn by the Jews in religious activities to show that they were sad or sorry for the things they had done wrong. I've already apologized. How long must I wear sackcloth and ashes before you'll forgive me? How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|
| ? References in classic literature |
|---|
And a hermit's got to sleep on the hardest place he can find, and put sackcloth and ashes on his head, and stand out in the rain, and --" Some of his low places he found lifted to ideals, some of his ideas had sunk to the valleys, and lay there with the sackcloth and ashes of pumice stone and sulphur on their ruined heads. This Mary Dyer had entered the mint- master's dwelling, clothed in sackcloth and ashes, and seated herself in our great chair with a sort of dignity and state. |
| Idioms and phrases |
| Free Tools: |
For surfers:
Browser extension |
Word of the Day |
Help
For webmasters: Free content | Linking | Lookup box | Double-click lookup | Partner with us |
|---|