pile Pelion on Ossa

Verb

pile 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)

1. (idiomatic) To 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...
   • 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