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Vinony

closet

noun

  1. A closet is an enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging or storing clothes.
L269501 on Wikidata ↗

verb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L331169 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈklɒzɪt/ / /ˈklɑzɪt/

adj

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.

  1. Private.
  2. Closeted, secret (especially with reference to gay people who are in the closet).

    “He's a closet case.”

    “I wonder if there is another in the world that could produce, among perfectly normal people, this strangest quirk in the agenda of liquordom, the closet drinker.”

  3. Denoting anything kept a secret or private.

noun

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.

  1. A small room within a house used to store clothing, food, or other household supplies.

    “A Closet full of shelves... it... should therefore be called a Cupboard rather than a Closet.”

    “She came in now, but to the closet; from it she took a simple skirt and blouse. Picking up her underclothing she departed, obviously to dress somewhere else.”

  2. Any private space, (particularly) bowers in the open air.

    “A slepe hym toke / In hys closet.”

  3. Any private or inner room, (particularly)

    “VVhen come to the place vvhere vve all vvere to dine, / (A chair-lumber'd Cloſet, juſt tvvelve feet by nine) / My friend bid me vvelcome, but ſtruck me quite dumb / VVith tidings that Johnson and Burke coud not come: […]”

  4. Any private or inner room, (particularly):

    “Closet for a lady to make her redy in, chamberette.”

  5. Any private or inner room, (particularly):

    “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.”

  6. Any private or inner room, (particularly):

    “[A]broad and at home, at their Tables or in their Closets […]”

  7. Any private or inner room, (particularly):
  8. A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.

    “Chaplayneȝ to þe chapeles chosen þe gate... / Þe lorde loutes þerto, & þe lady als, / In-to a comly closet coyntly ho entreȝ.”

    “Closet, chapelle.”

  9. A private cabinet, (particularly):

    “But heere's a Parchment... I found it in his Closset, 'tis his Will.”

  10. A private cabinet, (particularly):

    “Mr. Tradescant and his wife told me they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their closet of curiosities when they died.”

    “The late House of Commons have... seiz'd Closets and Writings without Information.”

  11. A private cabinet, (particularly):

    “Went the sonne of god oute of the pryuy closet of the maydens wombe.”

    “The closet can be a scary place for a gay teenager.”

  12. A private cabinet, (particularly):
  13. A private cabinet, (particularly):
  14. A private cabinet, (particularly):
  15. An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.

    “A Closset is the halfe of the Barre, and tenne of them maie be borne in one fielde.”

  16. A sewer.
  17. A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.
  18. A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.

    “6 o'clock TV news specials concerning a famous Hollywood movie star who has been diagnosed with [AIDS]. It had to happen sooner or later. (In fact it probably has happened sooner, but the tenor of the times and the closets of the people were no doubt more secure.)”

  19. A compendium of knowledge, possibly from closet as a room?

verb

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.

  1. To shut away for private discussion.

    “The ambassador has been closeted with the prime minister all afternoon. We're all worried what will be announced when they exit.”

  2. To put into a private place for a secret interview or interrogation.

    “He was to call a new legislature, to closet its members.”

    “He had been closeted with De Quadra.”

  3. To shut up in, or as in, a closet for concealment or confinement.

    “See what contempt is fallen on human kind; […] See Bedlam's closeted and handcuff'd charge / Surpass'd in frenzy by the mad at large;”

    “[…] she had to look twice over her shoulder when the Gay Northeasters and the City Belles strolled down Seventh Avenue, they were so handsome. But this envy-streaked pleasure Alice closeted, and never let the girl see how she admired those ready-for-bed-in-the-street clothes.”