"dirty linen" meaning in English

See dirty linen in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} dirty linen (uncountable)
  1. Matters of an embarrassing or unsavoury nature that one would normally wish to keep private. Tags: uncountable
    Sense id: en-dirty_linen-en-noun-CkTwe9nv Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 89 11 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 89 11 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 91 9
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dirty, linen. Tags: uncountable Related terms: dirty laundry
    Sense id: en-dirty_linen-en-noun-P3dNucGu
{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "dirty linen (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "A lot of dirty linen was exposed during the inquiry.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Matters of an embarrassing or unsavoury nature that one would normally wish to keep private."
      ],
      "id": "en-dirty_linen-en-noun-CkTwe9nv",
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hotels generate a lot of dirty linen.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dirty, linen."
      ],
      "id": "en-dirty_linen-en-noun-P3dNucGu",
      "links": [
        [
          "dirty",
          "dirty#English"
        ],
        [
          "linen",
          "linen#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "9 91",
          "word": "dirty laundry"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dirty linen"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "dirty linen (uncountable)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "dirty laundry"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "A lot of dirty linen was exposed during the inquiry.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Matters of an embarrassing or unsavoury nature that one would normally wish to keep private."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Hotels generate a lot of dirty linen.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dirty, linen."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dirty",
          "dirty#English"
        ],
        [
          "linen",
          "linen#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "dirty linen"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). 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.