add insult to injury

To exacerbate an already disappointing, embarrassing, or otherwise unpleasant situation. A: "Well, it's not like you were having a great season before you broke your leg." B: "Thanks for adding insult to injury." I was already late for work and, to add insult to injury, I spilled coffee all over myself. A: "The team is already on a 10-game losing streak, and, to add insult to injury, their star player is going to miss tonight's game with the flu." B: "I guess we'll be reporting on an 11-game losing streak tomorrow, huh?"

Fig. Cliché to make a bad situation worse; to hurt the feelings of a person who has already been hurt. First, the basement flooded, and then, to add insult to injury, a pipe burst in the kitchen. My car barely started this morning, and to add insult to injury, I got a flat tire in the driveway.

Hurt a person's feelings after doing him or her harm; also, make a bad situation worse. For example, Not only did the club refuse him, but it published a list of the rejected applicants-that's adding insult to injury , or The nearest parking space was half a mile away, and then, to add insult to injury, it began to pour : The phrase is an ancient one, even older than its often cited use in the Roman writer Phaedrus's fable of the bald man and the fly. A fly bit the head of a bald man, who, trying to crush it, gave himself a heavy blow. The fly then jeered, "You want to avenge an insect's sting with death; what will you do to yourself, who have added insult to injury?" In English it was first recorded in 1748.

COMMON If someone or something adds insult to injury, they make a bad situation worse by doing or causing another bad thing. She stood there and made him wash every part of his body. She then added insult to injury by trimming his hair and making him wear a linen shirt several sizes too big for him. Birth is such a shock, and what usually follows adds insult to injury. The poor little thing is held upside down and slapped. Note: You can use to add insult to injury or adding insult to injury to introduce a further unpleasant thing that has happened and that you are reporting. The driver of the car that killed Simon Collins got away with a £250 fine. To add insult to injury, he drove away from court in his own car.

To make harm worse by adding humiliation. The phrase has been traced to a Greek fable about a bald man. Trying to kill a fly on his head, he misses and hits himself very hard, and the fly replies, “You wanted to kill me for merely landing on you; what will you do to yourself now that you have added insult to injury?” It has since been applied to countless situations by as many writers, and has long been a cliché.