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Reader question: Please explain “skeleton” in this passage (How Tiger Woods could rehabilitate his image now, by Jay Busbee, Yahoo! Sports, December 2, 2009): Hopefully for Tiger, it can’t get much worse than this -- the first revelation of infidelity is far, far worse than any possible subsequent ones -- so now that the first skeleton has tumbled out of the closet, it’s time to haul out any more that may still be in there. My comments: “The skeleton in the closet” is an idiom referring metaphorically to a person’s past secrets, often dark and shameful secrets that they do not want others to know about. In this case, it refers to Tiger’s secret trysts with at least one, probably more women other than his wife. Tiger’s “first skeleton has stumbled out of the closet” means that his once secret affair is now exposed. That’s why the author of the above article suggests that Tiger come clean on all other such “transgressions” – the word Tiger used in an open letter of apology to his wife – now that it is pointless to hide them. In other words, tell the salivating media all, Tiger. Ah well, that’s all for Tiger’s woes. Here are a few more media examples of skeletons in the closet, or cupboard, or wardrobe: 1. skeleton in the closet: In this long anticipated movie written and directed by award winning director Dante Lam, Richie Jen plays a renowned top shooter, named Hartman or Fang Ke-ming, in a special unit of the HK police force. | 
