blow the coals

blow the coals

To turn a minor issue into a major source of conflict. Likened to coaxing a smoldering flame into a fire by literally blowing on hot coals. Stop trying to blow the coals! There is no tension between Jen and me—you're imagining it! A: "What went wrong last night?" B: "Well, you know Sue, she just kept blowing the coals until everybody was in an all-out fight."
See also: blow, coal
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • stomp on
  • stomp on (someone or something)
  • stomp on someone
  • stomp someone
  • coal
  • coals of fire
  • coals to Newcastle
  • haul/rake over the coals, to
  • speak the same language
  • speak the same language, to
References in classic literature
'I must blow the coals red first, before I can carry any,' I replied, getting a chair and the bellows
Wuthering Heights
However, they brought my attorney to this, that he promised he would not blow the coals, that if I inclined to accommodation, he would not hinder me, and that he would rather persuade me to peace than to war; for which they told him he should be no loser; all which he told me very honestly, and told me that if they offered him any bribe, I should certainly know it; but upon the whole he told me very honestly that if I would take his opinion, he would advise me to make it up with them, for that as they were in a great fright, and were desirous above all things to make it up, and knew that, let it be what it would, they would be allotted to bear all the costs of the suit; he believed they would give me freely more than any jury or court of justice would give upon a trial.
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
And remember what Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine man."
Science Fair project "burns rubber"