Idiom
add insult to injury
Meaning
To further a loss with mockery or indignity; to worsen an already unfavorable situation.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“My car broke down, and then it started raining to add insult to injury.”
“After losing the game, the referee gave me a penalty, which really added insult to injury.”
“The company fired him without notice, and to add insult to injury, they refused to pay his final month of salary.”
Examples
simple
“My car broke down, and then it started raining to add insult to injury.”
contextual
“After losing the game, the referee gave me a penalty, which really added insult to injury.”
complex
“The company fired him without notice, and to add insult to injury, they refused to pay his final month of salary.”
Origin
From the Roman fabulist Phaedrus' fable of the bald man and the fly (1st century AD): the man slaps at a fly, misses, and hits his own head — the fly adds insult to injury.
Key words
Related idioms
- Level
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Updated