火上浇油 — Chinese idiom

Meaning

• to pour oil on the fire ; fig. to aggravate a situation
• to enrage people and make matters worse

Character by character

• 火huǒfire, flame; to burn; anger, rage
• 上shàngabove, on top, superior; to go up; to attend; prev
• 浇jiāoto spray, to sprinkle, to water
• 油yóuoil, fat, grease, lard; oil paints

Idioms sharing a character

• 干柴烈火 gān chái liè huǒ
• 刀山火海 dāo shān huǒ hǎi
• 厝火积薪 cuò huǒ jī xīn
• 大动肝火 dà dòng gān huǒ
• 如火如荼 rú huǒ rú tú
• 后院起火 hòu yuàn qǐ huǒ
• 急如星火 jí rú xīng huǒ
• 惹火烧身 rě huǒ shāo shēn
• 战火纷飞 zhàn huǒ fēn fēi
• 打得火热 dǎ de huǒ rè

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.