See make matters worse in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for make matters worse meaning in English (4.2kB)
{
"antonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "improve"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "pour oil on troubled waters"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "repair"
}
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "makes matters worse",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "making matters worse",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "made matters worse",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "made matters worse",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "make<,,made> matters worse"
},
"expansion": "make matters worse (third-person singular simple present makes matters worse, present participle making matters worse, simple past and past participle made matters worse)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "His resentful attitude only made matters worse during the custody proceedings."
},
{
"ref": "2015 August 16, Press Association, “Wolves rescue point against Hull thanks to Allan McGregor howler”, in The Guardian",
"text": "The mistake came about when there seemed to be little danger as Dicko swung in an innocuous cross, but the keeper somehow spilled the ball for Henry to head into an empty net. To make matters worse his error came in front of Gordon Strachan, the Scotland manager.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To worsen an already difficult situation or unfavourable set of circumstances, typically by acting rashly, foolishly, or incompetently."
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "aggravate"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "worsen"
}
],
"id": "en-make_matters_worse-en-verb-VDhkomx4",
"links": [
[
"worsen",
"worsen"
],
[
"difficult",
"difficult"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
],
[
"unfavourable",
"unfavourable"
],
[
"circumstances",
"circumstances"
],
[
"rashly",
"rashly"
],
[
"foolishly",
"foolishly"
],
[
"incompetently",
"incompetently"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To worsen an already difficult situation or unfavourable set of circumstances, typically by acting rashly, foolishly, or incompetently."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "add fuel to the fire"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "add insult to injury"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"tags": [
"sarcastic"
],
"word": "cap it all off"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "fan the flames"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "make matters worse"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "throw gasoline on the fire"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "With malice"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "hit someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "kick a dog when it's down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "kick someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "punch down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "rub it in"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "rub salt in the wound"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "strike someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "twist the knife"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "es",
"english": "to make matters worse",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"tags": [
"adverb"
],
"word": "para más inri"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"word": "para colmo"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"word": "till råga på allt"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-make matters worse.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/31/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "make matters worse"
}
{
"antonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "improve"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "pour oil on troubled waters"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "repair"
}
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "makes matters worse",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "making matters worse",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "made matters worse",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "made matters worse",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "make<,,made> matters worse"
},
"expansion": "make matters worse (third-person singular simple present makes matters worse, present participle making matters worse, simple past and past participle made matters worse)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hypernyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "aggravate"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "worsen"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English idioms",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with audio links",
"English terms with quotations",
"English verbs"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "His resentful attitude only made matters worse during the custody proceedings."
},
{
"ref": "2015 August 16, Press Association, “Wolves rescue point against Hull thanks to Allan McGregor howler”, in The Guardian",
"text": "The mistake came about when there seemed to be little danger as Dicko swung in an innocuous cross, but the keeper somehow spilled the ball for Henry to head into an empty net. To make matters worse his error came in front of Gordon Strachan, the Scotland manager.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To worsen an already difficult situation or unfavourable set of circumstances, typically by acting rashly, foolishly, or incompetently."
],
"links": [
[
"worsen",
"worsen"
],
[
"difficult",
"difficult"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
],
[
"unfavourable",
"unfavourable"
],
[
"circumstances",
"circumstances"
],
[
"rashly",
"rashly"
],
[
"foolishly",
"foolishly"
],
[
"incompetently",
"incompetently"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To worsen an already difficult situation or unfavourable set of circumstances, typically by acting rashly, foolishly, or incompetently."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-make matters worse.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/3/31/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/En-au-make_matters_worse.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "add fuel to the fire"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "add insult to injury"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"tags": [
"sarcastic"
],
"word": "cap it all off"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "fan the flames"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "make matters worse"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "throw gasoline on the fire"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "With malice"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "hit someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "kick a dog when it's down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "kick someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "punch down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "rub it in"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "rub salt in the wound"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "strike someone when they are down"
},
{
"source": "Thesaurus:make matters worse",
"word": "twist the knife"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "es",
"english": "to make matters worse",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"tags": [
"adverb"
],
"word": "para más inri"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"word": "para colmo"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "worsen an already difficult situation",
"word": "till råga på allt"
}
],
"word": "make matters worse"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.