molehill mountaineer

English

Etymology

From the idiomatic expression make a mountain out of a molehill.

Noun

molehill mountaineer (plural molehill mountaineers)

  1. (idiomatic, derogatory) A person who habitually exaggerates or overemphasizes minor issues.
    • 1939 December 4, “The Presidency: Quiet”, in Time‎[1]:
      Molehill mountaineers of the press consequently had to make what they could of the record: […]
    • 1974, Renatus Hartogs, Questions Women Ask‎[2], page 111:
      I would say you've become a "molehill mountaineer" – building big mountains from little molehills in order to avoid facing the real issue, your fear of emotional pain.
    • 2010 July 22, Dick Polman, “Bonds of marriage”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer‎[3]:
      This theme may sound like a snore (at least to those readers who'd crave a full piece on molehill mountaineer Andrew Breitbart), […]
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:molehill mountaineer.
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