a skeleton in the cupboard

뜻

an embarrassing fact from someone's past that they hide

남이 알까 봐 숨기는 부끄러운 과거의 일.

예문

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?

문법

셀 수 있는 명사이며 복수형은 skeletons in the cupboard이다. 미국 영어에서는 a skeleton in the closet이라고 한다. 흔히 동사 have 뒤에 쓴다.