closet
pronunciation
How to pronounce closet in British English:
UK [ˈklɒzɪt]
How to pronounce closet in American English:
US [ˈklɑːzɪt]
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- Noun:
- a small room (or recess) or cabinet used for storage space
- a toilet in England
- a tall piece of furniture that provides storage space for clothes; has a door and rails or hooks for hanging clothes
- a small private room for study or prayer
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- Verb:
- confine to a small space, as for intensive work
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- Adjective:
- (of information) given in confidence or in secret
- indulging only covertly
Word Origin
- closet (n.)
- late 14c., from Old French closet "small enclosure, private room," diminutive of clos "enclosure," from Latin clausum "closed space, enclosure, confinement," from neuter past participle of claudere "to shut" (see close (v.)). In Matt. vi:6 it renders Latin cubiculum "bedchamber, bedroom," Greek tamieion "chamber, inner chamber, secret room;" thus originally in English "a private room for study or prayer." Modern sense of "small side-room for storage" is first recorded 1610s. The adjective is from 1680s, "private, secluded;" meaning "secret, unknown" recorded from 1952, first of alcoholism, but by 1970s used principally of homosexuality; the phrase come out of the closet "admit something openly" first recorded 1963, and lent new meanings to the word out.
- closet (v.)
- "shut up as in a closet" (originally usually for purposes of concealment or private consultation), 1680s, from closet (v.). Related: Closeted; closeting.
Example
- 1. What if you don 't have your own closet ?
- 2. She walked home and sat in her half-empty closet .
- 3. Make room in your closet and your life .
- 4. Daddy wanted to keep little sister in a grandiose closet .
- 5. The dress had been sitting in a box in her mother 's closet up until the auction .