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or overreacting. The phrase itself is so common that a study by psychologists found that with respect to familiarity and image value, it ranks high among the 203 common sayings they tested.
102:". In other words, he mimics the meaning of the fable by turning a mountain into a molehill. It was in the context of this bringing together of the two ideas that the English idiom grew.
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that gives birth to a mouse. In the former too much is made of little; in the latter one is led to expect much, but with too little result. The two appear to converge in
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referring to over-reactive, histrionic behaviour where a person makes too much of a minor issue. It seems to have come into existence in the 16th century.
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of responding disproportionately to something - usually an adverse circumstance. One who
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was less than two hundred years old by then. Previous to that it had been known by its
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a hylle whiche beganne to tremble and shake by cause of the molle whiche delved it
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The first tome or volume of the
Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente
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264:, Am. J. Psychiatry, Summer 1983, Vol. 96, No. 2, pp. 211–22; found at
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is said to be greatly exaggerating the severity of the situation. In
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Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus
162:(meaning earth-thrower), a shortened version of which (
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Visual imagery and familiarity ratings for 203 sayings
88:. The meaning finds its opposite in the fable about
279:"2.5. Of the Montayn whiche shoke (Caxton's Aesop)"
238:The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Depression
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49:Molehills at the foot of a Scottish mountain
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392:"On Language – The Earth Makes Its Move"
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31:Making a mountain out of a molehill
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268:. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
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188:elephantem ex musca facere
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357:"molehill"
313:"moldwarp"
285:2013-06-01
211:References
73:is called
71:distortion
420:Metaphors
147:wantitump
59:behaviour
377:1.9.69,
199:See also
170:molehill
142:molehill
55:metaphor
41:Metaphor
363:May 31,
341:May 31,
319:May 31,
114:phrase
335:"mole"
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193:Adagia
106:Origin
33:is an
165:molle
128:name
35:idiom
27:Idiom
365:2013
343:2013
321:2013
243:ISBN
153:want
140:. A
137:want
131:wand
121:mole
84:and
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