Idiom
come out of the broom closet
Meaning
To publicly reveal that one is a Wiccan or some other type of neopagan.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She decided to come out of the broom closet to her friends.”
“I want to come out of the broom closet before the next full moon.”
“After practicing for years in private, he finally felt comfortable enough to come out of the broom closet at the community center.”
“You might find it easier to come out of the broom closet if you join a local group of people who share your spiritual beliefs.”
“My neighbor decided to come out of the broom closet by placing a small altar and some crystals in her front window for everyone to see.”
“Although she feared potential judgment from her traditional family, she eventually chose to come out of the broom closet and embrace her spiritual identity openly.”
Examples
simple
“She decided to come out of the broom closet to her friends.”
“I want to come out of the broom closet before the next full moon.”
contextual
“After practicing for years in private, he finally felt comfortable enough to come out of the broom closet at the community center.”
“You might find it easier to come out of the broom closet if you join a local group of people who share your spiritual beliefs.”
“My neighbor decided to come out of the broom closet by placing a small altar and some crystals in her front window for everyone to see.”
complex
“Although she feared potential judgment from her traditional family, she eventually chose to come out of the broom closet and embrace her spiritual identity openly.”
Origin
The term is a late 20th-century extension of the idiom come out of the closet, substituting the standard hiding place for a broom closet. This variation functions as a jocular reference to the folklore stereotype of witches riding brooms, identifying the closet as the specific site where one might reasonably expect to store such equipment.
Key words
Related idioms
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