Show skeleton in the closet the expression a skeleton in the closet meaning a shameful family secret may have been suggested by the phrase a skeleton at the feast which means a disagreeable reminder at an inopportune time notes a writer in the washington post an english story is often told to account for the phrase it is a moralistic tale taie concerning a woman who is happy despite her secret worries and she has a real skeleton in her closet the skeleton of a former suitor whom her husband killed in a duel every night the husband forces her to kiss the skeleton |