English · Idiom Candidate

skeleton at the feast

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A person or thing that spoils a pleasant occasion

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Một người hoặc điều gì đó làm hỏng một dịp vui vẻ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: an uninvited guest resembling a skeleton

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The argument was a skeleton at the feast, ruining the party

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “skeleton at the feast” mean?

A person or thing that spoils a pleasant occasion Literally: an uninvited guest resembling a skeleton

Is “skeleton at the feast” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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