| obs., fig.of.sp. |
a figure of speech originating in the United States meaning "some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed — something suspicious or wrong" (Commonly used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, usage has declined since then, and use of the phrase by public figures has often been followed by criticism over the racism of the term "nigger". Thus, the phrase has been supplanted by "a tiger in the woodpile", and also by the similar (though not entirely synonymous) phrases "skeleton in the closet" and "fly in the ointment", which avoid the connotation.  wikipedia.org) |
