Definition of CLOSET

closet

Meanings

Plural: closets

Noun

  • a small room (or recess) or cabinet used for storage space
  • a toilet in Britain
  • 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
  • A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
  • Any private space, (particularly) bowers in the open air.
  • Any private or inner room, (particularly):
  • A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
  • Any private or inner room, (particularly):
  • A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
  • Any private or inner room, (particularly):
  • A place of (usually, fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
  • Any private or inner room, (particularly):
  • The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch.
  • Any private or inner room, (particularly)
  • A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
  • A private cabinet, (particularly):
  • One used to store valuables.
  • A private cabinet, (particularly):
  • One used to store curiosities.
  • A private cabinet, (particularly):
  • A secret or hiding place, (particularly) the hiding place in English idioms such as in the closet and skeleton in the closet.
  • A private cabinet, (particularly):
  • Clipping of closet case.
  • Any small room or side room.
  • One intended for storing clothes or bedclothes.
  • Any small room or side room.
  • Clipping of closet of ease, (later, UK) clipping of water closet: a room containing a toilet.
  • An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
  • A sewer.
  • A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.
  • A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.
  • The state of having one's sexual orientation a secret.
  • A compendium of knowledge, possibly from closet as a room?

Verb

  • confine to a small space, as for intensive work
  • To shut away for private discussion.
  • To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
  • To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.

Adj

  • Private.
  • Closeted, secret (especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet).
  • Denoting anything kept a secret or private.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos (“private space”) + -et (diminutive suffix), from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close + -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.

Synonyms

armchair, bathroom, cabinet, cupboard, loo, press, W.C., wardrobe, water closet

Scrabble Score: 8

closet is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
closet is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
closet is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 10

closet is a valid Words With Friends word