"the closet is made of glass" meaning in English

See the closet is made of glass in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: An extension of the metaphor in the closet, compare glass closet. Etymology templates: {{m|en|in the closet}} in the closet, {{m|en|glass closet}} glass closet Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} the closet is made of glass
  1. (LGBT, often humorous) Used in reference to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity is widely known despite not being acknowledged. Tags: humorous, often Categories (topical): LGBT
    Sense id: en-the_closet_is_made_of_glass-en-phrase-wfb0e-bl Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Topics: LGBT, lifestyle, sexuality

Download JSON data for the closet is made of glass meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in the closet"
      },
      "expansion": "in the closet",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "glass closet"
      },
      "expansion": "glass closet",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An extension of the metaphor in the closet, compare glass closet.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "the closet is made of glass",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "LGBT",
          "orig": "en:LGBT",
          "parents": [
            "Sexuality",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Sex",
            "Human",
            "All topics",
            "Reproduction",
            "Fundamental",
            "Life",
            "Nature"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 1, K-Ci Williams, “Kit Connor, Star of “Heartstopper,” Came Out as Bi. He Shouldn’t Have Had To”, in Teen Vogue",
          "text": "I spent my high school years in the closet. I remember a friend messaged me saying, “Just come out already, it’s fine, just be who you are.” He didn’t know I was queer, but I guess the closet was made of glass. In his mind, he was being supportive; in mine, he was increasing the turbulence I already felt about my sexuality and identity as a teen.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, William Lee Adams, Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision, New York, NY: Astra House, page 117",
          "text": "“Little boy—you are gay.” / “No, I'm not,” I say. / “Oh, you really are,” she says. She's insistent, but not mean. My closet is made of glass and she can see right through it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used in reference to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity is widely known despite not being acknowledged."
      ],
      "id": "en-the_closet_is_made_of_glass-en-phrase-wfb0e-bl",
      "links": [
        [
          "LGBT",
          "LGBT"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "sexual orientation",
          "sexual orientation#English"
        ],
        [
          "gender identity",
          "gender identity#English"
        ],
        [
          "acknowledge",
          "acknowledge#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(LGBT, often humorous) Used in reference to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity is widely known despite not being acknowledged."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "often"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "LGBT",
        "lifestyle",
        "sexuality"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "the closet is made of glass"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "in the closet"
      },
      "expansion": "in the closet",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "glass closet"
      },
      "expansion": "glass closet",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "An extension of the metaphor in the closet, compare glass closet.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "the closet is made of glass",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:LGBT"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2022 November 1, K-Ci Williams, “Kit Connor, Star of “Heartstopper,” Came Out as Bi. He Shouldn’t Have Had To”, in Teen Vogue",
          "text": "I spent my high school years in the closet. I remember a friend messaged me saying, “Just come out already, it’s fine, just be who you are.” He didn’t know I was queer, but I guess the closet was made of glass. In his mind, he was being supportive; in mine, he was increasing the turbulence I already felt about my sexuality and identity as a teen.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2023, William Lee Adams, Wild Dances: My Queer and Curious Journey to Eurovision, New York, NY: Astra House, page 117",
          "text": "“Little boy—you are gay.” / “No, I'm not,” I say. / “Oh, you really are,” she says. She's insistent, but not mean. My closet is made of glass and she can see right through it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used in reference to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity is widely known despite not being acknowledged."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "LGBT",
          "LGBT"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "sexual orientation",
          "sexual orientation#English"
        ],
        [
          "gender identity",
          "gender identity#English"
        ],
        [
          "acknowledge",
          "acknowledge#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(LGBT, often humorous) Used in reference to someone whose sexual orientation or gender identity is widely known despite not being acknowledged."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "often"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "LGBT",
        "lifestyle",
        "sexuality"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "the closet is made of glass"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.