Word.ws English Dictionary

pouring oil on troubled waters

pouring oil on troubled waters is the present participle and gerund 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 pouring oil on troubled waters

What is pouring oil on troubled waters the present participle and gerund of?
Pouring oil on troubled waters is the present participle and gerund of pour oil on troubled waters.

Words near pouring oil on troubled waters in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pouring 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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