out of the woodwork

Idioms

Emerging from obscurity or a place of seclusion. It often is put as come (or crawl) out of the woodwork, as in The candidates for this job were coming out of the woodwork. The expression alludes to insects crawling out of the interior wooden fittings of a house, such as baseboards and moldings. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Sellers are coming out of the woodwork as they notice demand from buyers creeping up.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

If yields move higher to compensate investors for underlying risks, it could get buyers to come out of the woodwork.

From Barron's • Apr. 22, 2026

In addition, bond buyers came out of the woodwork and pushed the long-dated yield back down again.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 24, 2026

"Their pasts are dissected. Exes come out of the woodwork to sell their stories, and everything they do or say is open to criticism."

From BBC • Jun. 28, 2025

That’s what’s happening right now, you think I’m hurt and you and every other punk Chihuahua in America is climbing out of the woodwork to try and get a bite out of me.

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023