How to Use self-flagellation in a Sentence

self-flagellation

noun
  • The same could be said for Howe’s lacerating self-flagellation afterwards.
    — George Caulkin, New York Times, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Huerta shouldn’t have to engage in this rite of self-flagellation, of course, but she and Chavez are linked by their legacies as two of the greatest civil rights fighters in our history.
    — Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2026
  • Both the criticism and self-flagellation imply that the act of claiming another person’s words can render these words deceitful, even if the words have been paid for and the content is true.
    — Emily Hodgson Anderson, The Conversation, 25 Mar. 2026
  • In Baghdad, thousands marched through the streets, including some who slashed their heads with razors and performed other forms of self-flagellation in a show of grief to mark the occasion.
    — Fadi Tawil, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2026
  • The practice of self-flagellation, Norman Cohn informs us, was seemingly first adopted by monastic hermits in the eleventh century.
    — Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
  • At the same time, invisibility has come as a relief, insofar as my vanity always kept company with self-consciousness and self-flagellation.
    — Lucinda Rosenfeld, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The technique was initially practiced alone, but in 1260 a hermit in Perugia launched a movement, and organized processions of mass self-flagellation broke out across Italy.
    — Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
  • On the 9th and 10th of Muharram some men parade through the streets performing acts of self-flagellation that can involve bloodletting; however, this practice is debated and in some instances prohibited in Shiʿi communities.
    — Charles Preston, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 May 2026
  • In 1994 Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was also a cleric with the rank of ayatollah, issued a fatwa forbidding the practice of self-flagellation.
    — Charles Preston, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 May 2026
  • Every year on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar and the same day as the Battle of Karbala, Shiite Muslims inside and outside of Iran observe Ashura and commemorate the slaying of Hussain by reenacting his death and performing self-flagellation, among other rituals.
    — Eric Lob, The Conversation, 2 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-flagellation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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