skeleton in the house
A British variation of the familiar idiom 'skeleton in the closet' (or cupboard), referring to a shameful family secret — something embarrassing, scandalous, or morally compromising that people prefer to keep hidden.
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A British variation of the familiar idiom 'skeleton in the closet' (or cupboard), referring to a shameful family secret — something embarrassing, scandalous, or morally compromising that people prefer to keep hidden. The 'house' variant was more common in 19th and early 20th century British usage before 'closet' became dominant. The image is of a hidden skeleton: a secret so dark it metaphorically never rots away and can resurface at any moment to cause embarrassment or scandal.
Every old family has a skeleton in the house, and the Hartleys were no exception.
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(UK, dated) A shameful secret.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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Semantically related
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(UK, idiomatic) A shameful secret.
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A very small bedroom or a closet directly adjoining a bedroom, historically common in older British, Scottish, and American homes where space was at a premium. 'Bed-closet' evokes the compact, ingenious use of limited square footage in older domestic architecture — the kind of arrangement where a curtained alcove or tiny side room serves as a sleeping space. The term appears in period novels and architectural histories as a marker of modest or working-class domestic life.
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(British, informal) Used as a fatuous excuse to avoid doing something.
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(US, Canada, euphemism) An outhouse: an outbuilding used as a lavatory.