زاد الطين بلة

Literal meaning:

(something) increased the wetness of the clay

Meaning:

to make matters worse

Examples:

(اليوم فقت (صحيت) متأخر على الدوام وإللي زاد الطين بلة إنه الطريق كان عجقة (أزمة

I woke up late for work today and to make matters worse, there was a traffic jam

سمعتي إنو فلان عم يخون مرته؟ وإللي زاد الطين بلة إنوعم يخونها مع وحدة متزوجة كمان

Did you hear that so-and-so is cheating on his wife? And the thing that made it worse is that he is cheating on her with a married woman

إجا يكحلها قام عماها

This is a hilarious expression to describe someone who intends to be helpful but ends up making things worse.

Literal meaning:

He came to put Kohl (eyeliner) on her (so that she’ll look better), but he made her blind instead 😂

Meaning:

to make matters worse

Examples:

For example, the toilet is clogged and Shadi volunteers to help. However, he ended up flooding the entire bathroom.

😂 !تعالي يا ماما, شوفي شو صار! إجى إبنك شادي يكحلها قام عماها

Come here Mama and see what happened! Your son, Shadi, came and made things worse!

And if you’re saying the expression directly to the person who made matters worse, you’ll have to tweak the verb conjugation, as shown below:

 والله مو (مش) عارف شو بدي قولك (قلك) يا زلمة بس إنت جيت لتكحلها قمت عميتها

 I swear dude, I don’t know what to say to you but you only came and made things worse.

Last but not least, here are some silly YouTube videos that let you see the meaning of the expression in action!

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That’s it, folks! I hope you learned something new today.

Take care and I’ll see ya around in the hosh,

Lyn

P.S. Like it? Do help to share it with other Levantine Arabic learners 🙂