Skeleton in the closet (idiom)

Skeleton coming out of a closet, here the skeleton of Mirabeau coming out of a hidden closet of king Louis XVI of France in 1792. Caricature from 1792.

Skeleton in the closet or skeleton in the cupboard is a colloquial phrase and idiom used to describe an undisclosed fact about someone which, if revealed, would have a negative impact on perceptions of the person; such as having a corpse concealed in your home long enough for it to decompose into bones. "Cupboard" is used in British English instead of the American English word "closet". It is known to have been used as a phrase, at least as early as November 1816, in the monthly British journal The Eclectic Review, page 468.^[1] It is listed in both the Oxford English Dictionary, and Webster's Dictionary, under the word "skeleton". The "Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary" lists it under this but also as a separate idiom. In the most derisive of usage; murder, or significant culpability in a years-old disappearance or non-understood event (a mystery), may be implied by the phrase.

See also

• Skeleton in the closet (disambiguation), list of works with this or similar titles
• Closeted, describing nondisclosure of sexual or gender identity
• Elephant in the room, an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed
• Nigger in the woodpile (now becoming uncommon) means "some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed—something suspicious or wrong"

References

1. The Eclectic Review, Volume 6, p. 468, at Google Books

External links

• http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/your-english/phrase-of-the-week/phrase-of-the-week-to-have-a-skeleton-in-the-cupboard/145671.article
• http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/skeleton-in-the-closet.html