The saying means that some minor issue occurred around the same time that a major issue occurred. For example, a person suffered a broken leg in a traffic accident in India and to add insult to injury a dog bit him. In this example, these are literal injuries but another example is. His car was stolen and to add insult to injury he lost his phone.

To add insult to injury, Mary noticed that her best friend was wearing the exact type of jeans that she'd bought on Friday.

"My daughter's friend can really add insult to injury! She made us pay collect on all calls during her family trip to Paris at Christmas." Making her friend pay collect on phone calls is the injury. The added circumstance of being rich enough to travel to Paris for Christmas is just insulting.

The insult is usually connected with the injury in some way. It's as if someone has said, "I don't care that you've been hurt, even though my next action will make your situation worse." Here are a few examples lifted straight from the net: "Medical bills add insult to injury for Colorado shooting survivors..." "Microbes, sponges, and worms -- the side effects of pollution and heavy fishing -- are adding insult to injury in Kenya's imperiled reef systems..." "It's hard enough for employers to cope with hundreds of new regulations passed each year, added to the tens of thousands of regulations already on the books. But now, agencies are adding insult to injury by imposing standards that are impossible to meet." "I think giving someone a ticket in a situation like this is just adding insult to injury." (comment about an accident victim then being fined by traffic police)