hara-kiri

Noun

hara-kiri (uncountable)

1. Ceremonial suicide by disembowelment, as by slicing open the abdomen with a dagger or knife: formerly practised in Japan by the samurai when disgraced or sentenced to death.
   • On the downfall of his power in 1867 he was urged by one of his Council to save the honour of his family by a voluntary suicide. He flatly refused to do so and left the room, whereupon his faithful adviser retired to another part of the castle and solemnly performed the hara-kiri.1899, William George Aston, A History of Japanese Literature, page 231

   Synonyms:

   seppuku

2. Suicide or any suicidal action.
   • ...the report that was issued at the time officially blamed a disgruntled crewman who had been accused of theft and may have decided to do the ultimate hara-kiri, but quite how you prove that I don't know...2020 January 12, Drachinifel, 47:56 from the start, in The Drydock - Episode 076, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2022
3. (broadly, figuratively) An act against one's own interests.
   • Regarded logically, therefore, Japan’s decision to go to war made no sense. It was hara-kiri.1982–1983, Paul Johnson, Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to the Eighties, revised and printed as […] to the Nineties, HarperCollins (2001), page 393
   • They are haunted by the spectre of the 1984 election, when Mr Walter Mondale committed hara-kiri by acknowledging the need to raise taxes if America were to get its economy straight.1987, The Economist, volume 304, numbers 7505-7513, page 1