A skeleton in the closet is a shameful or embarrassing secret from someone's past that could damage their reputation if it came out. The cupboard is fixed: closet in American English, cupboard in British English. It's often plural: everyone has skeletons in their closet.
When would you say a skeleton in the closet?
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have a skeleton in the closet; skeletons in your closet; UK: a skeleton in the cupboard
- The novel follows a family with a skeleton in the closet.
- He worried that the interview would reveal a skeleton in his closet.
- The fictional mayor's skeletons in the cupboard became central to the plot.
What changed
First versionThe politician had a skeleton in the wardrobe that a journalist eventually found.
RevisionThe politician had a skeleton in the closet that a journalist eventually found.
Clothes usually go in a wardrobe, especially in British English, so wardrobe feels like the natural hiding place. But the idiom is frozen: the skeleton hides only in a closet (US) or a cupboard (UK). Swapping wardrobe for closet makes the expression recognisable.
A secret is anything hidden, even a surprise party. A skeleton in the closet is only something shameful or frightening: a surprise party is a secret, but not a skeleton in the closet. Let the cat out of the bag is about revealing a secret, usually by accident.
Your turn
Complete the idiom for an embarrassing secret from the past: There is a skeleton in his ___.
Show the answer
closet — The idiom exists only with closet (or the British cupboard). Wardrobe is a perfectly good word for a clothes cupboard, but it isn't used in this expression.
Describe a character from a film or TV series who is hiding a shameful secret from the past.
The story begins when a forgotten letter exposes a skeleton in the narrator's closet.
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