haircloth
(ˈhɛəklɒθ)
[Cf. haire.]
1. Cloth or fabric made of hair, used for various purposes, as for tents, towels, shirts of penitents and ascetics; also in drying malt, hops, or the like.
| 1500 Nottingham Rec. III. 452 Every peece of hayrcloth. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) Matt. xi. 21 They had done penance in hearecloth and ashes long agoe. 1613 Sherley Trav. Persia 19 Tents of blacke haire-cloth. 1764 Harmer Observ. ii. §17. 75 The same sort of hair-cloth of which our coal-sacks are made. 1850 A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 220 Chastening herself with haircloth, which she wore under her royal apparel. |
| attrib. 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 229 [We] pitched our haire-cloth Tents round about Jacobs Well. 1866 G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxii. (1878) 408, I sat down on a haircloth couch. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 247/1 Milk..poured through a haircloth sieve. |
2. An article (as a shirt, towel, etc.) made of this fabric.
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xi. 68 Woulde haue doen penaunce in heerclothes and ashes. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 10 b, It serveth to convey downe the Malt, after it is watred, unto the hearecloth. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 57 The Master of the Bath rubb'd me all over with a hair-cloth. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v., Hair-Cloths, in military affairs..are used for covering the powder in waggons, or upon batteries. 1860 Pusey Min. Proph. 176 The ascetic, Jonadab..in his hair-cloth. |