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Glite Dictionary
to write for the drawer

to write for the drawer

9.4
Make stories or poems and keep them private, not share them
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : escribir para uno mismo
  • He often writes for the drawer, expressing his thoughts in a journal that nobody else sees.

Examples

  • After years of practicing, she decided to write for the drawer rather than share her poems with the world.

  • I don't know how to write for the drawer.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Many famous authors began their careers by choosing to write for the drawer, keeping their stories private at first.

Antonyms

to publish
∞ 3.3

Make a book or article available to the public

to share
711 1.0

To tell someone about your thoughts, feelings or experiences

How Public

to publish
∞ 3.3
to circulate
103 3.9
to write for the drawer
  • Informal
9.4

Surface Forms

write for the drawer infinitive
writing for the drawer present participle
writes for the drawer third person singular
wrote for the drawer past
written for the drawer past participle

Morphology

write + for + the + drawer

The meaning 'to write with no intention of publishing' cannot be directly derived from the constituents 'write' + 'for' + 'the' + 'drawer'. The noun 'drawer' (whether interpreted as a furniture drawer or the legal/payment sense) does not transparently signal unpublished or private authorship, and the phrase is an idiomatic/historical usage that a B1 learner would not predict from the parts. Cross-linguistically there is no obvious compositional pattern that would make this meaning apparent to learners.

Etymology

The phrase write for the drawer may come from the simple image of an author literally putting their pages into a desk drawer and not showing them to others. Because the pages are kept hidden, the phrase now means 'to write privately or not to publish'.