Hopefully not an actual skeleton; though when this phrase became popular around the late 18th century, the best-selling Gothic novels of the period often did feature the remains of long-hidden murder victims bursting out of cupboards, old chests and so on.
"A skeleton in the cupboard" (US: closet) is an idiom meaning a guilty or embarrassing secret, often concealed by an apparently respectable person or family. The phrase is used both jokingly (perhaps about some old family scandal which is no longer regarded as shocking) and seriously (especially with regard to political secrets and misdemeanours.)
In the past, people used to worry much more about others becoming aware of problems or weaknesses within a family, such as a history of alcoholism or mental illness. Now we are much more likely to mention our problems openly, so it may be that (in family life, anyway) we have fewer "skeletons" than we used to.
"A skeleton in the cupboard" (US: closet) is an idiom meaning a guilty or embarrassing secret, often concealed by an apparently respectable person or family. The phrase is used both jokingly (perhaps about some old family scandal which is no longer regarded as shocking) and seriously (especially with regard to political secrets and misdemeanours.)
In the past, people used to worry much more about others becoming aware of problems or weaknesses within a family, such as a history of alcoholism or mental illness. Now we are much more likely to mention our problems openly, so it may be that (in family life, anyway) we have fewer "skeletons" than we used to.
