pile Pelion on Ossa

English[edit]

From the Ancient Greek story of Otus and Ephialtes, who piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa in an attempt to storm Mount Olympus.

pile Pelion on Ossa (third-person singular simple present piles Pelion on Ossa, present participle piling Pelion on Ossa, simple past and past participle piled Pelion on Ossa)

(idiomatic) To make a difficult situation even worse.
- 2019 September 30, Jacob Heilbrunn, “If Mike Pence Becomes President the Neocons Will Stage a Comeback”, in The National Interest‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: Center for the National Interest, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-01:
  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already allowed a unanimous consent request for the whistleblower documents to proceed. Today, McConnell piled Pelion on Ossa, announcing that if the House votes to impeach Trump, he would have no choice but to take it up.
- 2020 June 22, Nigel Vinson, “Why I am backing Buckingham University”, in The Critic‎^[2], London: Locomotive 6960 Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-01:
  A task force will determine which research projects get funding – piling Pelion on Ossa – there are even plans to restrict admissions which would mean that universities will be able to recruit only five per cent more students than last year in order to prevent them poaching from lesser rivals.

“pile Pelion on Ossa” in Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2022; reproduced on Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.
“pile Pelion on Ossa”, in Collins English Dictionary.