closet

Meanings

Noun

• One used to store food or other household supplies: a cupboard.
• Any private area, bowers in the open air.
• Any private or inner room, :
• A pew or side-chapel reserved for a monarch or other feudal lord.
• A private cabinet, :
• Any small room or side-room, :
• An ordinary similar to a bar but half as broad.
• A sewer.
• A state or condition of secrecy, privacy, or obscurity.

Adjective

• Private.
• Secret, with reference to gay people who are in the closet; closeted.

Verb

• 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.

Related

Similar words

• armchair
• See cabinet

Narrower meaning words

• locker
• walk-in closet, storage room
• cupboard, pantry, larder, cabinet
• wardrobe, armoire, press
• cupboard, sideboard, cabinet, press , wardrobe

Origin

• From Middle English closet, from Old French closet, from clos + --et, from Latin clausum. Equivalent to close + -et, but generally applied in French solely to small open-air enclosures.