See closet case in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"2": "closet",
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"etymology_text": "From closet + case. First use appears c. 1946 in the Washington Post.",
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"form": "closet cases",
"tags": [
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{
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{
"ref": "1979 December 15, Rick Hillegas, “Workers World Party (response)”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 5:",
"text": "Even self-styled liberated gay and straight people sometimes call outspoken bigots \"closet cases\".",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1986 February 25, Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027, “More on Stereotypes/gays in Film”, in net.motss (Usenet):",
"text": "Now this one portrays the drill instructor as an extreme/suicidal if he ever admits it closet case.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity."
],
"id": "en-closet_case-en-noun-aGz1FVWn",
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],
[
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) A person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"clipping"
],
"word": "closet"
},
{
"word": "closet queen"
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "skabsbøsse"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"word": "kaappihomo"
},
{
"_dis1": "77 23",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "skrytyj gej",
"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"word": "скрытый гей"
}
]
},
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1956 September 24, Frank Scherschel, Gary Villet, “Fraternity Rushing”, in LIFE Magazine, page 144:",
"text": "Closet case at Delta Upsilon is shunted to the basement....",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1964, Paul H. Babbitt, “APPRAISAL OF PARENTAL ATTITUDES”, in Journal of Rehabilitation, volume 30, number 1, pages 20–21:",
"text": "Under-expectation on the part of the parent... can range from a complete refusal by the father to accept the fact that the child does exist (a closet case)...",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who is shunned, ignored, or considered to be an embarrassment."
],
"id": "en-closet_case-en-noun-fWHBmjkC",
"links": [
[
"shun",
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[
"consider",
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"audio": "En-au-closet case.ogg",
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"word": "closet case"
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{
"ref": "1979 December 15, Rick Hillegas, “Workers World Party (response)”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 21, page 5:",
"text": "Even self-styled liberated gay and straight people sometimes call outspoken bigots \"closet cases\".",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1986 February 25, Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027, “More on Stereotypes/gays in Film”, in net.motss (Usenet):",
"text": "Now this one portrays the drill instructor as an extreme/suicidal if he ever admits it closet case.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity."
],
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],
[
"conceal",
"conceal"
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],
[
"gender identity",
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]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(slang) A person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"tags": [
"clipping"
],
"word": "closet"
},
{
"word": "closet queen"
}
],
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"ref": "1956 September 24, Frank Scherschel, Gary Villet, “Fraternity Rushing”, in LIFE Magazine, page 144:",
"text": "Closet case at Delta Upsilon is shunted to the basement....",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1964, Paul H. Babbitt, “APPRAISAL OF PARENTAL ATTITUDES”, in Journal of Rehabilitation, volume 30, number 1, pages 20–21:",
"text": "Under-expectation on the part of the parent... can range from a complete refusal by the father to accept the fact that the child does exist (a closet case)...",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person who is shunned, ignored, or considered to be an embarrassment."
],
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[
"shun",
"shun"
],
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"ignore"
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "da",
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"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "skabsbøsse"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"word": "kaappihomo"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "skrytyj gej",
"sense": "a person who conceals or denies their sexuality or gender identity",
"word": "скрытый гей"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Washington Post"
],
"word": "closet case"
}
Download raw JSONL data for closet case meaning in English (3.3kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.