closet

Meaning

1. A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.
2. Any private space, (particularly) bowers in the open air.
3. Any private or inner room, (particularly)
4. Any private or inner room, (particularly):
5. A private room used by women to groom and dress themselves.
6. A private room used for prayer or other devotions.
7. A place of (usually, fanciful) contemplation and theorizing.
8. The private residence or private council chamber of a monarch.
9. A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
10. A private cabinet, (particularly):
11. One used to store valuables.
12. One used to store curiosities.
13. Private.
14. Closeted, secret (especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet).
15. Denoting anything kept a secret or private.
16. To shut away for private discussion.
17. To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.
18. To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.

Etymology / origin

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.

Related words

Descendant words

• klozet(Czech) (bor)
• Klosett(German) (bor)
• klósett(Icelandic) (der)
• kloset(Indonesian) (der)
• クローゼット(Japanese) (bor)
• klozetas(Lithuanian) (bor)
• klosett(Norwegian Bokmål) (der)
• klosett(Norwegian Nynorsk) (der)
• closet americano(Portuguese) (bor)
• clóset(Spanish) (bor)
• closet(Welsh) (bor)

Sources

No citations have been attached yet.