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View synonyms for molehill

molehill

[ mohl-hil ]

noun

  1. a small mound or ridge of earth raised up by a mole or moles mole burrowing under the ground.


molehill

/ ˈməʊlˌhɪl /

noun

  1. the small mound of earth thrown up by a burrowing mole
  2. make a mountain out of a molehill
    to exaggerate an unimportant matter out of all proportion


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Word History and Origins

Origin of molehill1

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; mole 1, hill

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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. make a mountain out of a molehill, to exaggerate a minor difficulty.

More idioms and phrases containing molehill

see make a mountain out of a molehill .

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Example Sentences

No matter his audience, Roman always came back to the argument that invasivorism could turn unwanted mountains of exotics into manageable molehills.

In both cases, the minority party on both committees thinks the majority is making a mountain out of a molehill.

It is the rawest example yet of our 2013, Twitter-loving, insta-pundit, mountain-out-of-a-molehill media culture.

But is this merely a case of making a mountain out of a molehill—or is there a legitimate reason to be upset?

From a policy point of view, it seems a ludicrous molehill to struggle over.

Few diplomatic events are more embarrassing than a summit that turns into a molehill.

Gran'ma said they were making a mounting out of a molehill—and expelling people did the school no good.

Call it, great lady, by another name; An humble modesty, that would not matchA molehill with Olympus.

She wondered why he, who did not usually trouble over trifles, made such a mountain of this molehill.

To "remind us of Dickens" would be as difficult for many modern novelists as for a molehill to remind us of the Matterhorn.

There is also such a thing as making nothing out of a molehill, in consequence of your head being too high to see it.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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