close the stable door after the horse has bolted
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English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb
[edit]close the stable door after the horse has bolted (third-person singular simple present closes the stable door after the horse has bolted, present participle closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, simple past and past participle closed the stable door after the horse had bolted)
- (idiomatic) To attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred; to design and implement a preventive mechanism that is too late (after the first failure instead of before).
- 2019 May 15, Ian C. Lucas, “WhatsApp Data Breach”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons)[1], column 242:
- We are now in an election period, with WhatsApp and closed Facebook groups being used, as we speak, in electoral campaigning, but the law has not changed since the DCMS Committee, on which I serve, raised these issues. We have yet another instance of shutting the door after the horse has bolted.
Synonyms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred
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See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “close the stable door after the horse has bolted”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- Gary Martin (1997–) “Close the stable door after the horse has bolted”, in The Phrase Finder.