add insult to injury
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Make a bad situation worse.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Adding insult to injury, in Greece and Italy, two of the hardest - hit countries, financial markets effectively deposed elected, if imperfect, governments.
To add insult to injury the roof leaked.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Equivalents & related
Near equivalent
đổ thêm dầu vào lửa
to add insult to injury; literally "to add kerosene to fire"
Tiếng Việt
Near equivalent
xát muối vào vết thương
to add insult to injury
Tiếng Việt
Near equivalent
across the board
Applying to all.
English · via xát muối vào vết thương
Lighter cards are two steps away in the meaning graph — equivalents of equivalents, reached via the entry shown on the card.
Common questions
What does “add insult to injury” mean?
Make a bad situation worse.
Is “add insult to injury” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
What is the closest equivalent?
“đổ thêm dầu vào lửa” (Tiếng Việt) — near equivalent.