noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A coarse hessian style of cloth used to make sacks. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   a coarse cloth resembling sacking wordnet
3. 3
   Garments worn as an act of penance. also, countable, figuratively, uncountable, usually

   "After he realised the gravity of his crime he spent some time wearing sackcloth and ashes."

4. 4
   a garment made of coarse sacking; formerly worn as an indication of remorse wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

blackcilicecorduroycottonfabrichairshirt

Example

More examples

"Some holy men affected sackcloth and ashes."

Etymology

From Middle English sakcloth, sekcloth, sekclath, sekklath. By surface analysis, sack + cloth.

Related phrases

wear sackcloth and ashes

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.