pile Pelion on Ossa

verb

To make a difficult situation even worse.

Meanings

verbpile Pelion on Ossa (third-person singular simple present piles Pelion on Ossa, present participle piling Pelion on Ossa, simple past and past participle piled Pelion on Ossa)

present singular third person piles Pelion on Ossa · participle present piling Pelion on Ossa · participle past piled Pelion on Ossa · past piled Pelion on Ossa

  1. idiomaticTo make a difficult situation even worse.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already allowed a unanimous consent request for the whistleblower documents to proceed. Today, McConnell piled Pelion on Ossa, announcing that if the House votes to impeach Trump, he would have no choice but to take it up.

    2019 September 30, Jacob Heilbrunn, “If Mike Pence Becomes President the Neocons Will Stage a Comeback”, in The National Interest, Washington, D.C.: Center for the National Interest, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Jun 2023
    1 more example

    A task force will determine which research projects get funding – piling Pelion on Ossa – there are even plans to restrict admissions which would mean that universities will be able to recruit only five per cent more students than last year in order to prevent them poaching from lesser rivals.

    2020 June 22, Nigel Vinson, “Why I am backing Buckingham University”, in The Critic, London: Locomotive 6960 Limited, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2022

Origin

From the Ancient Greek story of Otus and Ephialtes, who piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa in an attempt to storm Mount Olympus.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pile Pelion on Ossa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pile%20Pelion%20on%20Ossa

MLA

“pile Pelion on Ossa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pile%20Pelion%20on%20Ossa. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pile Pelion on Ossa,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pile%20Pelion%20on%20Ossa.

Source: pile Pelion on Ossa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.