a skeleton in the cupboard

意味

an embarrassing fact from someone's past that they hide

人が隠している、過去の恥ずかしい事実.

例文

1. 1Every family has a skeleton in the cupboard, and ours is Great-Uncle Harry's secret first wife.
2. 2Before the interview, the journalists searched for a skeleton in the cupboard but found nothing.
3. 3Gran's first marriage was a skeleton in the cupboard that nobody mentioned for fifty years.
4. 4The singer's old emails turned out to be a skeleton in the cupboard that ended his career.
5. 5Does the new manager have a skeleton in the cupboard, or is her past really that clean?

文法

可算名詞で、複数形は skeletons in the cupboard。アメリカ英語では a skeleton in the closet と言う。have の後に置くことが多い。