Word.ws English Dictionary

bottom drawer syndrome

bottom drawer syndrome noun: the situation where information is hidden or discarded because it is undesirable in some way, e.g. unfavourable research results.

Noun

bottom drawer syndrome (uncountable)

  1. The situation where information is hidden or discarded because it is undesirable in some way, e.g. unfavourable research results.

Origin of bottom drawer syndrome

The lowest drawer in a piece of furniture might be expected to contain less important items; also, a researcher might quietly tuck undesirable findings into a desk drawer where no one else will see them.

Questions about bottom drawer syndrome

What does bottom drawer syndrome mean?
Bottom drawer syndrome means the situation where information is hidden or discarded because it is undesirable in some way, e.g. unfavourable research results.
What part of speech is bottom drawer syndrome?
Bottom drawer syndrome is a noun.

Words near bottom drawer syndrome in the dictionary

  1. bottom dog
  2. bottom dogs
  3. bottom dollar
  4. bottom dollars
  5. bottom drawer
  6. bottom drawer syndrome
  7. bottom drawers
  8. bottom drop
  9. bottom drops out
  10. bottom dweller
  11. bottom dwellers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bottom drawer syndrome (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “bottom drawer syndrome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bottom_drawer_syndrome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.