out of the woodwork

1. 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

"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

It’s no surprise to me that some of the same legal players from 2020 are coming out of the woodwork to help Jefferson Griffin now, because this is not just about one state Supreme Court seat.

From Slate

Meanwhile, a boatload of other accusers and witnesses came out of the woodwork.

From Slate

Like old friends coming out of the woodwork, like ex-boyfriends reaching out to me — “Hey, you wanna grab a coffee or something?”

From Los Angeles Times

Not enough of them yet, but I hold out hope that there are more who come out of the woodwork and refuse to play along with DeSantis’ quest to permanently erode democracy in Florida.

From Slate