to pour gasoline on the fire
1
7.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
echar leña al fuego
- Instead of helping, her criticism poured gasoline on the fire of his frustration.
Examples
-
You poured gasoline on the fire.
Fiction book (1994) -
Adding more demands at this stage will only pour gasoline on the fire.
-
His rude comments just poured gasoline on the fire of their argument.
Synonyms
69
8.0
To make a problem or feeling worse
48
4.8
To make people feel strong emotions like anger or fear
37
4.0
To cause a situation to become more difficult or unpleasant
8
7.2
To make an argument or feeling worse by encouraging it
8
8.0
To cause trouble by saying things to make people argue
7
5.9
To make a bad situation worse by saying or doing something that makes people angrier
5
5.3
To cause fights or problems between people on purpose
2
4.8
To put extra fuel on a fire or make a disagreement worse
1
7.4
Make people more angry and cause conflict between groups
To make a bad situation worse by saying or doing something
To cause trouble between people to get attention
To say or do something that causes strong reactions and confusion among people
To cause a lot of trouble and anger among people
Antonyms
How Damaging
- Informal
1
7.3
73
4.6
110
4.0
61
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
pour + gasoline + on + the + fire
The meaning is a direct, literal-to-metaphorical extension: pouring a flammable liquid on a fire clearly conveys intensifying or worsening the fire, so the composed image readily maps onto making a situation worse. This metaphorical mapping (pour + gasoline + fire = intensify a problem) is cross-linguistically common and would be inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The idiom pour gasoline on the fire paints a clear picture: imagine you pour gasoline on a fire and the flames grow quickly. So, it means 'to do or say something that makes a bad situation worse'.