Word.ws English Dictionary

wear sackcloth and ashes

wear sackcloth and ashes verb: to publicly express regret for something done wrong.

Verb

wear sackcloth and ashes (third-person singular simple present wears sackcloth and ashes, present participle wearing sackcloth and ashes, simple past wore sackcloth and ashes, past participle worn sackcloth and ashes)

  1. (idiomatic) To publicly express regret for something done wrong.

Forms of wear sackcloth and ashes

third-person singular presentwears sackcloth and ashes
present participlewearing sackcloth and ashes
pastwore sackcloth and ashes
past participleworn sackcloth and ashes

Origin of wear sackcloth and ashes

From the Bible Book of Esther 4:1 "When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly".

Questions about wear sackcloth and ashes

What does wear sackcloth and ashes mean?
Wear sackcloth and ashes means to publicly express regret for something done wrong.
What part of speech is wear sackcloth and ashes?
Wear sackcloth and ashes is a verb.
What is the past tense of wear sackcloth and ashes?
The past tense of wear sackcloth and ashes is wore sackcloth and ashes.

Words near wear sackcloth and ashes in the dictionary

  1. wear one's heart on one's sleeve
  2. wear one's heart upon one's sleeve
  3. wear out
  4. wear out one's welcome
  5. wear rose-colored glasses
  6. wear sackcloth and ashes
  7. wear the breeches
  8. wear the pants
  9. wear the trousers
  10. wear thin
  11. wear through

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wear sackcloth and ashes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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