hara-kiri

alternative harakiri · alternative nonstandard hari-kari · alternative nonstandard harikari · alternative harikiri

1. uncountableCeremonial 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. uncountableSuicide 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. broadlyfigurativelyuncountableAn 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

   2 more examples

   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

   But with GSM players lobbying hard for more spectrum, taking MVNOs on board now would be hara-kiri.

   2008 April 5, Anurag Prasad, “Virgin Territory”, in Outlook Business, volume 3, number 7, page 50