The Collaborative International Dictionary
harakiri \ha"ra*ki`ri\, hara-kiri
\ha"ra-ki`ri\(h[add]"r[add]*k[=e]`r[i^]), n. [Jap., stomach
cutting.]
A ritual form of suicide, by slashing the abdomen, formerly
practiced in Japan, and commanded by the government in the
cases of disgraced officials; disembowelment; -- also
written, but incorrectly, hari-kari.
--W. E. Griffis.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"suicide by disembowelment," 1856, from Japanese, literally "belly-cutting," the colloquial word for what is formally called seppuku "cut open the stomach;" from hara "belly" + kiri "to cut."
Wiktionary
n. 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. 2 suicide or any suicidal action. 3 (context by extension figuratively English) An act against one's own interests.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Hara-Kiri was a monthly French satirical magazine, first published in 1960. It was created by Georges Bernier, Cavanna and Fred Aristidès. A weekly counterpart, Hara-Kiri Hebdo, was first published in 1969.
Contributors included Melvin Van Peebles, Reiser, Roland Topor, Moebius, Wolinski, , Cabu, , Fournier, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Willem. In 1966 it published Les Aventures de Jodelle, drawn by Guy Peellaert
Hara-Kiri editions, subtitled "Journal bête et méchant" ("Stupid and vicious magazine"), were constantly aiming at established powers, be they political parties or institutions like the Church or the State. In 1961 and 1966 the monthly magazine was temporarily banned by the French government.
Usage examples of "hara-kiri".
It had by-products which he merely noted and filed for reference - such as the reason why Rudi's creativity gave him agony (his deep unconscious saw it as parturition, and that brings pain), and the reason why he chose to attempt suicide by hara-kiri (it represented a Caesarean delivery on the cross-identity level of his mind).
Seppuku, sometimes called hara-kiri, the ritual suicide by disembowelment, was the only way a samurai could expiate a shame, a sin, or a fault with honor, and was the sole prerogative of the samurai caste.
Hull was like an ancient Japanese nobleman calmly kneeling to perform the ceremonial act of hara-kiri and emphasizing the importance of life in the very selection of death.
Hull had seemed like an ancient Japanese nobleman kneeling to perform the ceremonial act of hara-kiri, and emphasizing the importance of life in the very selection of death.
The first thing he saw upon emerging from the bathroom was a framed photo of Yukio Mishima, the samurai-poet who had committed hara-kiri in 1970 in order to dramatize to an uncomprehending nation a death of uniqueness: the dissolution of traditional Japanese values in the noisome cauldron of the ethos of the West.
In his uniform of Colonel Ito he was as handsome a man as she had seen, and she did not want him, not even for the honor of his country, to commit hara-kiri before the house of a clod like the German luna.