Word.ws English Dictionary

poured oil on troubled waters

poured oil on troubled waters is the simple past and past participle of pour oil on troubled waters.

Meaning of pour oil on troubled waters

Verb

pour oil on troubled waters (third-person singular simple present pours oil on troubled waters, present participle pouring oil on troubled waters, simple past and past participle poured oil on troubled waters)

  1. (idiomatic) To calm, appease or quiet a person or situation.
    • Tom Street deemed it his duty to pour oil upon the troubled waters, being, as it were, officially responsible for the welfare of the chowder-plates and tobacco-pipes which were hired for the occasion.1885, Beverley Ellison Warner, a Troubled Waters: A Problem of To-day, page 40

Questions about poured oil on troubled waters

What is poured oil on troubled waters the simple past and past participle of?
Poured oil on troubled waters is the simple past and past participle of pour oil on troubled waters.

Words near poured oil on troubled waters in the dictionary

  1. poured gasoline on the fire
  2. poured good money after bad
  3. poured honey on
  4. poured in
  5. poured into
  6. poured oil on troubled waters
  7. poured one out
  8. poured one's heart out
  9. poured out
  10. poured out one's heart
  11. poured over

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: poured oil on troubled waters (page history and authors); pour oil on troubled waters (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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