“Add fuel to the fire”in other languages
Make a bad situation, often an argument, even worse.
English
Chinese
French
Spanish
EnglishChineseFrenchSpanishSame idea, different pictures
English, French and Spanish all feed a fire: fuel, oil, de l'huile, or firewood, leña. The idea is old: Roman writers already spoke of feeding a flame.
Chinese chooses cold instead of heat: 雪上加霜, frost on top of snow. It is less about stirring up anger than about one misfortune piling on another.
More sayings in other languages
- All hands on deck
- An uphill battle
- Ants in one's pants
- The apple of one's eye
- At cross purposes
- At full tilt
- At the top of one's lungs
- Avoid like the plague
- Bail someone out