skeletons in the/someone's closet

phrase

informal

: something bad or embarrassing that happened in someone's past and that is kept secret

He asked if she had any skeletons in her closet that might affect her political campaign.

Examples of skeletons in the/someone's closet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Their weeklong stay is an unraveling of moral dilemmas, skeletons in the closet and AI consequences. — Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 9 July 2025

That leads her to a shady tech company with plenty of skeletons in the closet, a pinky-less yakuza leader with a score to settle, and plenty more encounters with her burgeoning nemeses — the robots. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 10 July 2024

The great cliché of serial-killer stories is the seemingly harmless neighbor with skeletons in the closet (or garage, or freezer). — James Poniewozik, New York Times, 12 June 2023

Inflation, for all its virtues, has some skeletons in the closet. — Sean Carroll, Discover Magazine, 21 Oct. 2011