Can anyone tell me the correct saying for Skeletons in the Closet? Is it that or wardrobe or cupboard as apposed to closet? I am not sure which one it is!
my Oxford dictionary says closet or cupboard. Perhaps the ones in closets are discreetly homosexual. But either will do. I don't think wardrobe sounds right.
Both 'closet' and 'cupboard' versions first appeared in English during the 1850s. 'Closet' was certainly the earlier of the two recorded, but 'cupboard' was hot on its heels, first appearing in Wilkie Collins' Queen of Hearts'. Nowadays, it is almost invariably the 'cupboard' version that is used...maybe because of what J suggests above!
A research into your family history may well reveal a "skeleton in the cupboard"
Some ancestor who was perhaps hanged for sheep stealing or such, or one who was born "on the wrong side of the blanket"