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

It would be absolutely amazing if somebody from that time would come out of the woodwork.

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“People were coming out of the woodwork,” says Stark.

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“They should have known people were going to come out of the woodwork and do stuff like this,” she said.

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

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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.

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