come out of the closet
English edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb edit
come out of the closet (third-person singular simple present comes out of the closet, present participle coming out of the closet, simple past came out of the closet, past participle come out of the closet)
- (intransitive, idiomatic) To tell others about one's homosexuality, bisexuality, transness, or any minority or disapproved-of identity, belief, preference, etc., where previously this had been kept secret.
- She finally came out of the closet to her religious family regarding her atheism.
- 1972, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Make Up”, in Transformer:
- Now, we're coming out / Out of our closets / Out on the streets / Yeah, we're coming out
Synonyms edit
Antonyms edit
- remain in the closet
- woodwork (verb)
Derived terms edit
- come out of the broom closet (“come out as a pagan”)
- coming-out
Related terms edit
- come out of the woodwork (“appear as if from nowhere”)
Translations edit
to tell others about a secret belief or preference
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self-disclosure of sexual orientation
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Further reading edit
- coming out on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- closeted on Wikipedia.Wikipedia