(See also AUGMENTATION.)

add fuel to the fire To make a bad situation worse; to intensify; to say or do something to increase the anger of a person already incensed. Literally adding fuel to a fire increases the strength with which the flames blaze, just as metaphorically adding “something that serves to feed or inflame passion, excitement, or the like … especially love or rage” (OED), intensifies the passion.

add insult to injury To heap scorn on one already injured. The phrase is from the Aesop fable of a baldheaded man who, having been bitten on his pate by a fly, tries to kill the insect. In doing so, he gives himself a painful blow. The fly jeeringly remarks:

confusion worse confounded Chaos compounded or made greater than before. John Milton uses the expression in Paradise Lost (1667):

The unusual syntactical structure of this expression may be clarified by noting that the obsolete or archaic meaning of confound was ‘to overthrow, to bring to ruin’ while the obsolete meaning of confusion was ‘Overthrow, ruin.’ Thus, the line confusion worse confounded follows the pattern of repetition found in the previous line.

cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face To cause one’s own hurt or loss through spiteful action; to cause injury to one-self or one’s own interests in pursuing revenge. This proverbial expression first appeared in print in 1785, when it was defined in Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue:

This saying is believed to have come from the French se couper le nez pour faire dépit à son visage.

escape the bear and fall to the lion To be free of one predicament only to get involved in another more trying, complex, or dangerous one; to go from bad to worse. In use as early as the beginning of the 17th century, this expression suggests that there is danger to be met at every turn.

heap Pelion upon Ossa To make matters worse, to compound or aggravate things; also, to indulge in fruitless or futile efforts. The allusion is to the Greek myth of the giants who unsuccessfully tried to get to Olympus, home of the gods, by stacking Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa.

Job’s comforter One who either intentionally or unwittingly adds to another’s distress while supposedly consoling and comforting him. The allusion is to the Biblical Job’s three friends who come to commiserate with him over his misfortunes and who instead of consoling him only aggrieve him more by reproving him for his lack of faith and his resentful attitude. The term has been in use since at least 1738.

out of the frying pan into the fire From bad to worse, from one disastrous situation to one even worse.

Use of the expression dates from the early 16th century.

rub salt in a wound To maliciously emphasize or reiterate something unfavorable or disagreeable with the express purpose of annoying someone; to continually harp on a person’s errors or shortcomings, especially those of which he is acutely conscious. Since salt, when placed on an open wound, causes painful stinging and discomfort, to actually rub salt into a wound would be excessively cruel and sadistic. Although recent medical research has shown that salt (such as in seawater) actually helps wounds to heal with minimal scarring, it is safe to assume that a person who figuratively rubs salt in a wound is not motivated by therapeutic concern. A popular and more widely used variation is rub it in.

when push comes to shove When a situation goes from bad to worse; when worse comes to worst; when the going gets tough. In this expression shove refers to an exaggerated—bigger and harder—push. Thus, when push comes to shove refers to the point at which subtlety gives way to flagrancy.