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Dirty linen   /dˈərti lˈɪnən/   Listen
Dirty linen

noun
1.
Personal matters that could be embarrassing if made public.  Synonym: dirty laundry.






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"Dirty linen" Quotes from Famous Books



... of wit, by any means without his own share of vexations. He had sent a large quantity of verses to Voltaire, and requested that they might be returned with remarks and corrections. "See," exclaimed Voltaire, "what a quantity of his dirty linen the King has sent me to wash!" Talebearers were not wanting to carry the sarcasm to the royal ear; and Frederic was as much incensed as a Grub Street writer who had found his name ...
— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... never received any one in her house who has been divorced. Neither have I except in one or two cases where very dear friends had been forced by circumstances into the divorce court. I didn't approve even then. People should wash their dirty linen at home." ...
— The Sisters-In-Law • Gertrude Atherton

... Friends—they did not realize it in the life around them. That which was drama was either the visitation of God or the dark deeds of man, from which they must avert their eyes. Their own tragedies they hid beneath their grey coats and bodices; their dirty linen they never washed in public, save in the scandal such as this where the Society must intervene. Then the linen was not only washed, but duly starched, sprinkled, ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... d'you say? This pedlar and I are social outcasts. And there is Dagmar in England, weeping her eyes out because of divorce courts and more public washing of dirty linen. You love her. I don't! Why not carry this fellow to the rochers, to-night after dark? To-morrow, when I have changed clothes with him, we can throw him into the valley. It's a good thousand feet or more. Would there be much left of that face, ...
— O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 • Various

... And if he did marry, the food would come. It isn't that. The man is unconscientious and ignorant as to the sources of true happiness, and won't submit himself to cold mutton and three clean shirts a week,—not because he dislikes mutton and dirty linen himself,—but because the world says they are vulgar. That's the feeling that ...
— The Eustace Diamonds • Anthony Trollope



Words linked to "Dirty linen" :   personal matters, affairs, dirty laundry, personal business



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