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make a mountain out of a molehill is more like crying wolf, isn't it? That is, making a minor problem sound like a major emergency.



Making a mountain out of a molehill is, as you say. making a minor problem seem major. Crying wolf is more like making up a problem where none exists. The story from which it derives is that of a young shepherd boy who cried wolf when there was none just to get attention and eventually people decided that there was no wolf when there really was one.