Meanings
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
- 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 20231 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
pile Pelion on Ossa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pile%20Pelion%20on%20Ossa
“pile Pelion on Ossa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pile%20Pelion%20on%20Ossa. Accessed November 5, 2026.
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.