make a mountain out of a molehill

To blow an issue or event out of proportion: “You have only a small blister on your heel, but you complain as though you broke your leg. Why are you making a mountain out of a molehill?”

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Idioms and Phrases

Exaggerate trifling difficulties, as in If you forgot you racket you can borrow one—don't make a mountain out of a molehill. This expression, alluding to the barely raised tunnels created by moles, was first recorded in John Fox's The Book of Martyrs (1570).

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“It’s just that no one else could do it. Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill.”

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“Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill,” she said speaking at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

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“I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill, but I also want to be careful to follow what the rules are,” he said.

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She saw a giant scaly creature squish a mountain with its thumb, muttering, “Make a mountain out of a molehill, you say? Ha! How about making a mountain into a molehill! That’s far more interesting. Yes, yes.”

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Similarly, Pivotal Research Group analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak said investors shouldn’t make a “mountain out of a molehill,” with the most recent quarterly figures.

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make a monkey out of make a name for oneself

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