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Fine Dictionary

molehill

ˈmoʊˌlhɪl
WordNet
  1. (n) molehill
    a mound of earth made by moles while burrowing
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  1. (n) molehill
    A little hill, hillock, mound, or ridge of earth thrown up by moles in burrowing underground. When moles are working near the surface in search of food, the hills become tortuous ridges which may be traced sometimes for many yards with little or no interruption.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
  1. (ns) Molehill
    a little hill or heap of earth cast up by a mole
Quotations
He's the type who makes mountains out of molehills and then sells climbing equipment.
Ivern Ball
The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.
Al Neuharth
Idioms

Make a mountain out of a molehill - If somebody makes a mountain out of a molehill, they exaggerate the importance or seriousness of a problem.

Etymology

Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary For mold-warp—A.S. molde, mould, weorpan, to warp.

Usage in the news

Proper gearing can make molehill out of mountain. columbiatribune.com

McD's CEO Turns a Gay Molehill Into a Culture War Mountain. cbsnews.com

Is the immigration-bill flap a mountain or a molehill . commonwealmagazine.org

Mac malware: menace or molehill . chron.com

EZ Pour Spout 's lengthy, uncredited arrangements often make a jazz mountain out of a pop or rock molehill. jazztimes.com

EARLY THIS YEAR, climate-change skeptics went on the attack, pointing to two molehills of scandal that they claimed were towering peaks of scientific malfeasance. ashingtonpost.com

With all the words in the English language to choose from, making fun of the New York Board of Education's list of "banned" words might be making a mountain out of a molehill. knoxnews.com

In the last post, Segunda and I continued our quest to negotiate the mountains and molehills of dating. blog.aarp.org

Molehill Politics from the April 17, 2008 issue. nybooks.com

In her detailed and provocative article "Molehill Politics", Elizabeth Drew refers to the unresolved Michigan primary and its potential as a decider. nybooks.com

Usage in scientific papers

At the risk of making a mountain out of a molehill we note that here and below, according to standard conventions, “ 0 −→ U −→ V ” and “ V −→ W −→ 0 ” signify that U −→ V and V −→ W are injective and surjective morphisms of A-modules, respectively; in particular, 0 is not considered as an (R, A)-Lie algebra.
Kaehler quantization and reduction

Usage in literature

It is a mere molehill in our path. "The King's Esquires" by George Manville Fenn

He would go off at once and fetch John Trowel and his tools, and they would very soon burrow into the molehill if one existed. "Washed Ashore" by W.H.G. Kingston

That is often a mountain to one which is only a molehill to another. "Out in the Forty-Five" by Emily Sarah Holt

What a molehill mountain. "Witness to the Deed" by George Manville Fenn

We won't make mountains out of molehills, eh, Ladybird? "Captain Desmond, V.C." by Maud Diver

The drivers will tell you that these are molehills, which isn't quite true. "Wild Animals at Home" by Ernest Thompson Seton

Though less elevated than the Alps, the Pyrenees mountains are no molehills. "Bruin" by Mayne Reid

I would rather have to fight one mountain than two molehills any day, you get so much more sympathy after the struggle. "Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate" by Charles Turley

He even walked around molehills; they reminded him too much of the soft soil about the trap. "Creatures of the Night" by Alfred W. Rees

Why, I wouldn't undertake to ascertain even the height or depth of a molehill by so uncertain a process. "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846" by Various

Usage in poetry
The ploughman would turn from his plough in the day
And wonder what being had come in his way,
To lie on a molehill and read the day long
And laugh out aloud when he'd finished his song.
He halloos, runs, and cries out, 'Here, boys, here!'
Nor doth he brambles or the nettles fear:
He stumbles at the molehills, up he gets,
And runs again, as one bereft of wits;
And all his labour and his large outcry
Is only for a silly butterfly.
His running through nettles, thorns, and briers,
To gratify his boyish fond desires,
His tumbling over molehills to attain
His end, namely, his butterfly to gain,
Doth plainly show what hazards some men run
To get what will be lost as soon as won.