sackcloth and ashes

I would absolutely beg on my hands and knees in the Senate chamber or anywhere else, in sackcloth and ashes and on broken glass, if I thought it would help.

The source added that the EU wasn't in "sackcloth and ashes" after it temporarily suspended agreements made as part of the Brexit deal last Friday.

Saying that he remained confident that Mr. Biden would ultimately win the presidency, he joked, “I am wearing sackcloth and ashes.”

Why not mandate Stitch Fix-style deliveries of sackcloth and ashes so that we may know that these people are truly humbled?

In recalling such a sordid piece of news—now twenty years old today—I’m still left feeling what I did two decades ago when this story first broke: sackcloth and ashes.