closet
/ˈklɒzɪt
/- ‘Yes just let me get my shoes on,’ Kat said walking over to her closet full of shoes.
- I jump off my bed and walk to my closet scanning the clothes, but not really looking, for my mind is recalling the events that happened earlier.
- Keeley walked out of the closet with clothes in her hands and threw them on the bed, smiling at me.
- Houses that don't have catch-all closets or rooms in which the inhabitants can dump outdoor stuff always seem sinister to me.
- Close doors to rooms that don't need to be heated, like closets, storage rooms, etc.
- some persons will use the closet twice daily
- There may be closet homosexuals but they are not to be relied upon.
- The church has been ordaining closet homosexuals for 2000 years, but it seems to have problems ordaining honest ones.
- He's obviously terrible in bed, and there's one scene that suggests he's a closet homosexual - so what's to admire?
- She added: ‘We have all been so affected by the tragedy that we risk closeting our kids and raising a generation of very nervous young adults.’
- He responded by closeting himself in the former ladies' cabin of the steamer Magnolia while he poured over maps pondering the situation.
- I guess it was time for me to sulk about the house of the rest of the evening, closeting myself away in my room listening to music.
Origin
late Middle English (denoting a private or small room): from Old French, diminutive of clos 'closed' (see close1).
[LME]
Although closet is now the usual word in American English for a cupboard or wardrobe, it originally referred to a small private room, such as one for study or prayer. This idea of privacy led to the sense of hiding a fact or keeping something secret, which goes right back to the beginning of the 17th century. A person who is hiding the fact that they are gay has been described as in the closet, or as a closet homosexual, since the late 1960s. To out someone, meaning to reveal that they are gay, is a shortened way of saying ‘to force them out of the closet’. Closet comes from close[ME], which both in the sense ‘near’ and ‘shut’ go back to Latin claudere ‘to shut’, also the source of recluse[ME], someone who shuts themselves away.