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

Word History and Origins

Origin of molehill¹

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

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 .

Example Sentences

Pardon me, but I resented being called a molehill almost as much as being called a rat.

From Literature

And some of his most unexpected laughs are in his own mixing up of mountains and molehills.

From New York Times

"China could act in non-reciprocal fashion, retaliating somewhere other than on the investment side. But the executive order is barely going to do anything, and China escalating would risk turning a molehill into a mountain."

From Reuters

When the mass of several suns is compressed into an orb that is 10 km in diameter, extreme gravity crushes mountains of superdense material into molehills that are millimeters tall.

From Scientific American

“This is another example of right-wing conservatives making a mountain out of a molehill,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat.

From Washington Times