| 释义 |
▪ I. closet, n.|ˈklɒzɪt|
Also 4–7 closett, 5–6 -ette, 6 claus(s)et, Sc. closat, 6–7 closset, 7 clossett.
[a. OF. closet, dim. of clos:—L. clausum: see close n.1 and -et1. In later Fr. applied exclusively to a small enclosure in the open air.]
1. a. A room for privacy or retirement; a private room; an inner chamber; formerly often = bower 2, 2 b; in later use always a small room: see 4.
1370Robt. Cicyle 57 A slepe hym toke In hys closet. c1374Chaucer Troylus ii. 1215 In a closet for to avyse her bettre, She went alone. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxii. 80 In her closet she hideth herself sore sighyng. 1530Palsgr. 206/1 Closet for a lady to make her redy in, chamberette. 1586A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 103 We doe call the most secret place in the house appropriate unto our owne private studies..a Closet. 1611Bible Joel ii. 16 Let the bridegroome goe forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 1679–88Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (1851) 133 The Queen's garden closet at Windsor. 1713Swift Frenzy J. Denny, While I was in my closet pondering the case of one of my patients. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 14 ⁋3 A sudden intruder into the closet of an author.
b. esp. Such a room as the place of private devotion (with allusion to 1611 version of Matt. vi. 6). arch.
1611Bible Matt. vi. 6 When thou prayest, enter into thy closet [Wyclif couch, 16th c. versions chamber, 1881 Rev. inner chamber]. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) I. 535 Retire into your closet..and there look back upon your lives. 1888Abp. Benson in Times 15 Aug. 8/4 Many of our devout poor can find neither space nor quiet for..solitary closet prayer..For them the retirement of the spacious lonely church is the ‘closet’ of Christ.
c. As the place of private study or secluded speculation; esp. in reference to mere theories as opposed to practical measures.
a1600Hooker Eccl. Pol. vii. xxiv. §15 At home or abroad, at their tables or in their closets. 1746Chesterfield Lett. (1870) 26 The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in the Closet. 1789Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) I. 311 In their closets they make men exactly suited to their systems; but..such men as exist nowhere else. 1880W. A. Wright Shaks. Rich. III Pref. 60 Richard the Third, although not a play for the closet, has always been a favourite upon the stage. 1889Spectator 23 Mar., The project..which..most attracts the philanthropists of the closet.
2. a. The private apartment of a monarch or potentate; the private council-chamber; a room in a palace used by the sovereign for private or household devotions. Obs. exc. Hist. † Clerk of the Closet: see clerk 6 c. †b. A pew in the chapel of a castle occupied by the lord and his family, or in a Chapel Royal by the Royal family. Obs.
c1340Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 934 Chaplaynez to þe chapeles chosen þe gate..Þe lorde loutes þerto, & þe lady als, In-to a comly closet coyntly ho entrez. 1530Palsgr. 206/1 Closet, chapelle. 1549Latimer Serm. bef. Edw. VI, i. (Arb.) 38 Shall any of his sworne chapelins? No. Thei bee of the clausset and kepe close such matters. 1565Act 8 Eliz. c. 4. §1 Common Prayer in Churches, Chapels, Closets and Oratories. 1565J. Jewel Def. Apol. (1611) 104 That S. Peter..sitteth with him [the Pope] in Consistory, or in Clauset, discussing of Cases. 1625Meade in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 315. III. 202 If the Queens Closet where they now say masse were not large enough, let them have it in the Great Chamber. 1769Junius Lett. xii. 52 You have now a strength sufficient to command the closet. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 547 James called into his closet Arnold Van Citters..and Everard Van Dykvelt. 1868Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. App. 618 Dealings in the royal closet would be..likely to be known to a courtier and royal chaplain.
3. a. A private repository of valuables or (esp. in later use) curiosities; a cabinet. arch. or Obs. In china-closet (q.v.) this passes into b.
[1598Shakes. Merry W. i. iv. 46.] 1601― Jul. C. iii. ii. 134 But heere's a Parchment..I found it in his Closset, 'tis his Will. 1605― Lear iii. iii. 12, I haue lock'd the Letter in my Closset. 1659Ashmole Diary (1774) 326 Mr. Tradescant and his wife told me they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their closet of curiosities when they died. 1680in Somers Tracts I. 116 The late House of Commons have..seized Closets and Writings without Information. 1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. i. ii. (1743) 291 Silver coins..still preserved in the closets of the curious. 1756–7Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 325 A closet full of pieces of rock crystal.
b. A small side-room or recess for storing utensils, provisions, etc.; a cupboard. (Not very distinct from 4.) The normal N. Amer. usage.
1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 584 The Confectionarie or closet of sweet meates. 1628Wither Brit. Rememb. i. 198 The Storehouse, and the Closset of our dainties. 1799Jane Austen Lett. (1884) I. 209 A closet full of shelves..it should therefore be called a cupboard rather than a closet. 1929M. de la Roche Whiteoaks xxiv. 333 Finch..ran upstairs to his attic room to look over his clothes. He took them from the closet. 1960Times 14 Sept. 12/6, I had been warned of a few hazards such as..the use of closets rather than cupboards [in the U.S.]. 1968Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 45 (Advt.), 6 room home in immaculate condition. 3 bedrooms, closets galore.
c. skeleton in the closet (or cupboard): a private or concealed trouble in one's house or circumstances, ever present, and ever liable to come into view: see skeleton.
d. to come out of the closet: to admit (something) openly, to cease to conceal, esp. one's homosexuality. Opp. to be in the closet. Cf. sense 11 below. slang.
1963S. Plath in London Mag. Jan. 16 Come here, sweetie, out of the closet. 1972Pride of Lions (Columbia Univ.) Apr. 2/1 For those who have come out, tried it and like it, read no more. For those, ‘in the closet’, you need to read on, get right on! 1973Times 4 June 14/1 It will be nice if those of us who have been slightly shamefaced addicts [of horse-racing] for years can at last come out of the closet. 1978J. Gores Gone, no Forwarding (1979) xiii. 79 Simson was much straighter-looking..than when his sexual preference had still been in the closet. 1978M. Puzo Fools Die xli. 453 She was coming out of the closet and without words she was telling the world of her bisexuality. 1985Lit. Rev. Jan. 5/2 Old Cheever, crowding seventy, has gone Gay. Old Cheever has come out of the closet.
4. With special reference to size: Any small room: especially one belonging to or communicating with a larger. Common in north of Engl., Scotland, Ireland; bed-closet, a small bed-room.
1768Sterne Sent. Journ., Case of Delicacy, The little room within was a damp cold closet. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 596 When the family is squeezed up in scanty closets for the sake of having a spacious hall. 1789P. Smyth tr. Aldrich's Archit. (1818) 127 Closets are adapted to the larger apartments.
†5. fig. The den or lair of a wild beast. Obs.
1576A. Fleming tr. Caius' Dogs, The Tumbler, This sort of dogs..doth suddenly gripe it [the beast] at the very..mouth of their receptacles or closets.
6. a. transf. That which affords retirement like a private chamber, or which encloses like a cabinet; a hidden or secret place, retreat, recess. † closet of the heart: the pericardium; see also b.
c1400Destr. Troy 11929 The knightes in the closet [the Trojan horse] comyn out swithe. 1450–1530Myrr. our Ladye 233 Went the sonne of god oute of the pryuy closet of the maydens wombe. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 221 This skinne..is also called the litle closet of the heart. c1630Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. 51 Him, whom..Mary's pure closet now doth bear. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 178 What Adam dreamt of when his Bride Came from her closet in his side. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 147 We see them [our souls] bound..to the narrow closet of a mans body.
b. fig.
1413Lydgate Pilgr. Sowle v. xiv. (1483) 110 Within a lytel closet of his entendement. 1577Hanmer Anc. Eccl. Hist. 419 The grace of God resiant in the closset of his breste. 1633T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. (1821) 37 Enter..into the Closet of your Conscience. 1862Goulburn Pers. Relig. iv. (1873) 40 The Closet of the heart.
7. Short for † ‘Closet of ease,’ ‘water-closet’.
1662Gerbier Princ. 27 A Closet of ease. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 4 Some persons will use the closet twice daily. 1887Spectator 12 Mar. 345/2 The stench from the overcrowding or from closets is almost unbearable.
8. Her. An ordinary resembling the bar (n.1 6), but of half its breadth.
1572J. Bossewell Armorie 12 b, A Closset is the halfe of the Barre, and tenne of them maie be borne in one fielde. 1766–87Porny Heraldry iv. 74 The Bar has two Diminutives, the closet which contains half of the Bar, and the Barrulet, which is the half of the closet.
†9. A sewer. Sc. Obs.[Translating L. cloaca: origin doubtful; there is nothing like it in French.] 1533Bellenden Livy (1822) 70 (Jam.) He drew mony closettis, condittis, and sinkis fra the hight of the toun to the..low partis thairof. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. III. 499 Out-throw ane closat quhair the filth did ryn Of all that place.
10. attrib., as
a. closet-candlestick, closet-door, etc.; esp. in reference to the closet as
b. a place of private devotion, as closet-chapel, closet-devotion, closet-meditation, closet-prayer, closet-religion, closet-vow; or
c. of private study and speculation, as closet-lucubration, closet-philosopher, closet-politician, closet-reasoner, closet-speculation, closet-student, closet-study, etc.;
d. in sense 2, closet-chaplain, closet-work;
e. in sense 3, closet-keeper, † closet-draught, closet-picture (= cabinet drawing or picture).
1685Lond. Gaz. No. 2068/4 One *Closet Candlestick, with Snuffers and Extinguisher.
1647Fuller Good Th. in Worse T. (1841) 130 What, several *closet-chapels for those of the same bed and board?
1649Milton Eikon. xxiv. 492 Reasons, why he should rather pray by the officiating mouth of a *Closet-chaplain.
1691–8Norris Pract. Disc. 120 The general defect of our common *Closet-devotions.
Ibid. 339 Those great Master-pieces of his Art, those *Closet-Draughts of his beauty.
1851Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 61 None of the Desk and *Closet-helps for philological study.
1666Pepys Diary (1879) III. 422 Tom Cheffins..the king's *closett-keeper. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) II. 206 The office of closet-keeper to the King.
1818B. O'Reilly Greenland 243 Sailing to the north pole has been long a very favourite subject for *closet lucubration.
1815W. Phillips Outl. Min. & Geol. (1818) 101 The speculations of mere *closet-philosophers.
1721Lond. Gaz. No. 6003/3 Great choice of the finest *Closet Pictures.
1815T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 247 *Closet politicians merely, unpractised in the knowledge of men.
1678Bunyan Pilgr. i. 216 They cast off..private Duties, as *Closet-Prayer.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 328 [Bp. J. Taylor's Treatises] are in use..as well for church-service as *closet-preparation.
1782F. Burney Cecilia i. ii. (1783) 21 The *closet reasoner.
1803Chalmers Let. in Life (1851) I. 476 Nature takes her own way, unmindful of the *closet speculations of theory.
1848Mill Pol. Econ. iii. xxiv. §1. (1876) 394 Not *closet students..but men of the world and of business.
1886Q. Rev. Apr. 519 The *closet-study which had analysed the experiences of the..world.
1649Milton Eikon. xxiv. 489 They knew the King..to have suckt from them and their *Closetwork all his impotent principles of Tyrannie and Superstition.
11. In reference to the closet as a place of privacy, the word was formerly almost adjectival = Private. Obs. exc. as in b.
1612–5Bp. Hall Contempl. B iv. (T.), There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins. 1657Austen Fruit Trees ii. 159 The secret and closet good works of [God's] people. 1706Drake Pref. to Secr. Mem. Earl Leicester, That these were not written for closet memoirs appears by the stile and manner of them.
b. Secret, covert, used esp. with reference to homosexuality; closet queen, a secret male homosexual.
1967W. Churchill Homosexual Behavior among Males ix. 184 The ‘closet queen’ or so-called latent homosexual becomes a menace..to the entire community. 1972Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 12 Feb. 24/3 Today's homosexual can be open (‘come out’) or covert (‘closet’). 1977Warren & Ponse in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. 304 A closet queen for the overt community is one who will not admit gayness to straight audiences; for the secret community, it refers to one who will not affiliate with the gay community for fear of stigmatization. 1978J. Gores Gone (1979) xiii. 79 ‘You boys don't look the [homosexual] type.’ ‘Closet,’ explained O'B. 1984Mail on Sunday (Colour Suppl.) 2 Dec. 28/2 His colleagues' retort is that Jimmy is a closet queen because he doesn't live with a woman. 1985Sunday Tel. 26 May 17/1 His defection [to Rome] is a blow because he was not a closet Papist intoxicated by bells and fancy vestments.
▸ closet case n. slang (orig. U.S.) (a) an unattractive or embarrassing person, a social outcast; (b) a homosexual who conceals or denies his or her sexuality (cf. sense 10b).
1946Washington Post 7 Oct. 5/2 Unattractive girls are ‘strictly *closet cases’, meaning they should be in the closet when men are around. 1966Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Daily Northwestern 24 Sept. 22/2 Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater is being treated by Republicans as a campaign closet case this time around. 1969S. Harris Puritan Jungle x. 191 They're what we call ‘closet cases’, hiding and scared to death of exposure. 2003Out Feb. 14/1 Out 's getting less willing to shower accolades on closet cases who emerge seconds before tabloids push them out.
▸ closet drama n. Literary Criticism a play intended to be read rather than performed; such plays collectively.
1822Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 448/1 There exists no living dramatic genius, as yet displayed, notwithstanding the late publication of many exquisite *closet-dramas. 1908Times 19 Dec. 11/5 Closet dramas, like closet orations, have no reason for the form which they take, since that form is meant for hearers, not for readers. 2004Compar. Lit. 56 99 Stage Fright shifts our attention to ‘a seemingly ineradicable and moralizing anti-theatricalism’ central to modernist closet drama.
▪ II. closet, v.|ˈklɒzɪt|
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To shut up or detain in a ‘closet’ (see prec. 1, 2), as for private conference, or secret treaty.
1687Tramallier in Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) 166 They had closeted the Dr. for about an hour. 1690Consid. Raising Money 1 Our Constitution was overthrown..by closetting and corrupting Members of Parliament. 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. I. 390 She closeted her..and gave her to know that she had seen me. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 217 The king asserted that some of the Churchmen whom he had closeted had offered to make large concessions to the Catholics, on condition that the persecution of the Puritans might go on.
b. esp. in pass., to be closeted with or together.
1749Fielding Tom Jones (1775) III. 162 The lawyer and Blifil have been closeted so close lately. 1847Tennyson Princ. iii. 40 Very like men indeed—And with that woman closeted for hours! 1865Trollope Belton Est. xxv. 304 Captain Aylmer and Miss Amedroz were to be closeted together in the little back drawing-room. 1884Pall Mall G. 5 Sept. 1/1 The Austrian Minister was recently closeted with the German Chancellor.
†c. To discuss or arrange in the closet, to scheme in secret (to do something). Obs.
1624W. Yonge Diary (Camden 1848) 78 He coming out of Spain, they having closeted to detain him.
2. fig. To shut up in any private repository.
1595T. Edwards Cephalus (1878) 54 Oh why doth Neptune closet vp my deere? 1633G. Herbert Temple, Decay iv, The heat Of thy great love once spread, as in an urn Doth closet up it self. |