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to make a difficult situation even worse by causing further harm or offense
The company fired half the staff without warning, and to add insult to injury, they didn't pay the final month's salary.
The company worsened the employees' financial hardship by withholding pay.
She tripped in front of everyone, and to add insult to injury, her phone flew out of her hand and landed in a puddle.
The situation became even more embarrassing and damaging.
Often used to describe situations where additional problems or insults are piled onto an already bad scenario.
Use this idiom to describe situations where one problem is followed by another that makes it worse. It is often used to express frustration or criticism.
The phrase does not refer to literal injuries or insults, but to metaphorical ones. It describes how a situation can deteriorate further.
The phrase dates back to ancient Rome, where the poet Horace used a similar expression in his work 'Epistles' (c. 20 BCE). The idea of 'adding insult to injury' likely comes from the practice of beating a defeated enemy, where striking them again after they were already injured would be seen as unnecessarily cruel.
This idiom is commonly used in both spoken and written English, particularly in informal contexts. It emphasizes the compounding nature of misfortune or harm.