VOCABULARY building is no JOKE
The wolf is at the door: to have just enough money to be able to eat and live: "As a student, he took an evening job to keep the wolf from the door."
A skeleton in the closet:
a secret that would cause embarrassment if it were known:
“It’s my belief that we all have a skeleton in the closet somewhere.” Ozzy Osbourne, in an interview with Interview Magazine.
Let the cat out of the bag: to allow a secret to be known, usually without intending to: "I was trying to keep the party a secret, but he went and let the cat out of the bag."
Fly off the handle:
to lose self control.
"He flies right off the handle for nothing" A couple of synonyms: lose one's temper, become very angry, fly into a rage, go berserk, breathe fire, flare up, go crazy, go wild, go bananas, have a fit, see red, hit the roof, go up the wall, flip, lose it, freak out, and so on and on and on... wonder why.
Bee in bonnet:
to keep talking about something again and again because one thinks it is very important; to be preoccupied or obsessed with an idea. "She never stops talking about dieting - she's got a real bee in her bonnet about it."
Monkey on your back:
to have some very burdensome nuisance you have to put up with; a serious problem that you cannot forget.
"That huge credit card payment is a real monkey on his back."
ALSO
An elephant in the room:
If you say there is an elephant in the room, you mean that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.
"There was an elephant in the room when I spoke with my mother, because she hates my new boyfriend."
enough of problematic idiom attics.