Word.ws English Dictionary

skeletons in the cupboard

skeletons in the cupboard is the plural of skeleton in the cupboard.

Meaning of skeleton in the cupboard

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

Questions about skeletons in the cupboard

What is skeletons in the cupboard the plural of?
Skeletons in the cupboard is the plural of skeleton in the cupboard.

Words near skeletons in the cupboard in the dictionary

  1. skeletons in one's closet
  2. skeletons in one's closets
  3. skeletons in one's house
  4. skeletons in the closet
  5. skeletons in the closets
  6. skeletons in the cupboard
  7. skeletons in the cupboards
  8. skeletons in the house
  9. skeletonweed
  10. skeletonweeds
  11. skeletony

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: skeletons in the cupboard (page history and authors); 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:

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