# add insult to injury

Pronunciation: say "ad in-sult too IN-juh-ree" US /ˌæd ˌɪn.sʌlt tu ˈɪn.dʒə.ɹi/, UK /ˌæd ˌɪn.sʌlt tuː ˈɪn.dʒə.ɹi/; AUS say "ad IN-sult too IN-juh-ree"

## Idiom

1. To worsen an already unfavorable situation by adding mockery, indignity, or further harm to an existing loss.
   - Simple: To make a bad situation even worse by saying or doing something hurtful.
   - _The airline lost his luggage and then, to add insult to injury, refused to offer any compensation._
   - _Being passed over for the promotion stung, and her manager added insult to injury by praising the rival in front of the whole team._

## Origin

The phrase derives from the fables of Phaedrus in the first century CE, in which a bald man swats at a fly on his head but strikes himself, prompting the fly to ask what he would do to himself, having 'added insult to injury' (Latin: quid facies tibi, Iniuriae qui addideris contumeliam?). The actual English wording appears from the middle of the 18th century.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/add-insult-to-injury (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).