add insult to injury

What it means

To make a bad or painful situation even worse, often by doing or saying something that adds further offence or harm. It usually implies that a second wrong follows an initial one.

Examples

• They cancelled my flight, and to add insult to injury, they lost my luggage.
• He broke the vase, then added insult to injury by blaming the cat.
• The fine was bad enough, but adding insult to injury, they doubled it.
• She was fired, and to add insult to injury, they asked her to train her replacement.

Where it comes from

The phrase is traced to the Roman fable writer Phaedrus, in a tale about a bald man who slaps at a fly and hits his own head. It entered English as a translated proverb in the 18th century.

Related idioms