In this mini episode, you will learn the idiom “to air your dirty laundry in public.”
Episode 432 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the idiom “to air your dirty laundry in public.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi! This is So Yeong from Busan, in Korea. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 432 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting idiom. The idiom is “to air your dirty laundry in public.” To air your dirty laundry in public.
That’s air, a-i-r, your dirty, d-i-r-t-y, laundry, l-a-u-n-d-r-y, in public, p-u-b-l-i-c. Air your dirty laundry in public.
Before I can talk about what this idiom means and how we use it, I need to make sure that you understand all of the pieces of this strange expression.
First of all, what about that word air? In this phrase, air is a verb, and it means “to hang something outside so that the air can dry it.” To hang something where the air can dry it.
And what about laundry? What is laundry? Laundry means “clothes that have recently been washed” or “clothes that need to be washed.” Either one of those: clothes that have recently been washed and clothes that need to be washed.
And then finally, what about in public? What does it mean if something happens in public? It means that it happens in a place or in a way that other people can see it or other people can experience it. If something happens in public, that means other people know about it because it’s happening around other people. It’s not happening in private—it’s happening in public, around other people.
Now that you know what each of these pieces means, let’s look at the whole phrase, “to air your dirty laundry in public.”
This idiom means “to share or reveal private information to other people.” It means “to reveal personal or secret things about somebody.”
In other words, it’s like hanging up your dirty laundry for everybody to see. In this expression, the “dirty laundry” means some kind of personal, private, or secret information.
You will usually hear people use this expression with a negative word. You will usually hear people say something like, “I don’t want to air my dirty laundry in public.” Or “I’m not going to air my dirty laundry in public.” Or “Don’t air your dirty laundry in public.” Because it involves revealing things that you might not want other people to know. It involves revealing or telling people about personal, private, secret, maybe embarrassing information that you don’t want everyone to know. This is the kind of thing that you might only share with your close friends. You don’t want everybody to know, or you don’t want everybody in the neighborhood or everybody in your school or everybody in your office to know.
That is how we use this expression. We use it to refer to showing or telling or revealing personal, private, or maybe embarrassing information.
Doing that is like hanging up your dirty clothes for everybody to look at. Everybody can see your dirt, I guess—your bad or negative or personal or embarrassing information.
And that is “to air your dirty laundry in public,” an interesting and useful idiom that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 432 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way So Yeong recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!