Wiktionary
n. (lb en US) A shameful secret.
WordNet
n. a scandal that is kept secret; "there must be a skeleton somewhere in that family's closet" [syn: skeleton, skeleton in the cupboard]
Wikipedia
Skeleton in the closet (idiom) or skeleton in the cupboard is a phrase used to describe a shameful secret.
The origin of the phrase is unknown.
It may also refer to:
Skeleton in the closet or skeleton in the cupboard is a colloquial phrase and idiom used to describe an undisclosed fact about someone which, if revealed, would have a negative impact on perceptions of the person; such as having a corpse concealed in your home long enough for it to decompose into bones. "Cupboard" is used in British English instead of the American English word "closet". It is known to have been used as a phrase, at least as early as November 1816, in the monthly British journal The Eclectic Review, page 468. It is listed in both the Oxford English Dictionary, and Webster's Dictionary, under the word "skeleton". The "Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary" lists it under this but also as a separate idiom. In the most derisive of usage; murder, or significant culpability in a years-old disappearance or non-understood event (a mystery), may be implied by the phrase.
Usage examples of "skeleton in the closet".
He looked like someone who was being forced to reveal a skeleton in the closet.
The less you felt, the louder you proclaimed your selfless love and servitude to others, in dread of ever letting them discover your own self, the self that you betrayed, the self that you kept in concealment, like a skeleton in the closet of your body.