Word.ws English Dictionary

skeleton in the cupboard

skeleton in the cupboard noun: a shameful secret.

Noun

skeleton in the cupboard (plural skeletons in the cupboard or skeletons in the cupboards)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) A shameful secret.
    • ‘I expect all families have some skeletons in the cupboards,’ Robina said with a smile of understanding. ‘I know I have some relatives who embarrass me, but you have done nothing to be ashamed of that I can see.[…]’2005, Eileen Knowles, chapter 11, in Roses for Robina (Linford Romance Library), large print edition, Leicester, Leicestershire: Linford, published 2017, →ISBN, page 292

Synonyms of skeleton in the cupboard

Forms of skeleton in the cupboard

pluralskeletons in the cupboard
pluralskeletons in the cupboards
alternative formskeleton in one's cupboard

Questions about skeleton in the cupboard

What does skeleton in the cupboard mean?
Skeleton in the cupboard means a shameful secret.
What part of speech is skeleton in the cupboard?
Skeleton in the cupboard is a noun.
What is the plural of skeleton in the cupboard?
The plural of skeleton in the cupboard is skeletons in the cupboard.

Words near skeleton in the cupboard in the dictionary

  1. skeleton grips
  2. skeleton in one's closet
  3. skeleton in one's cupboard
  4. skeleton in one's house
  5. skeleton in the closet
  6. skeleton in the cupboard
  7. skeleton in the house
  8. skeleton key
  9. skeleton keys
  10. skeleton programming
  11. skeleton screen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skeleton in the cupboard (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-skeleton in the cupboard.ogg.

Cite this entry: “skeleton in the cupboard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/skeleton_in_the_cupboard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.