closing the stable door after the horse has bolted

closing the stable door after the horse has bolted
trying to stop something bad happening when it has already happened and the situation cannot be changed.

Improving security after a major theft would seem to be a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.


New idioms dictionary. 2014.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted — trying to stop something bad happening when it has already happened and the situation cannot be changed. Improving security after a major theft would seem to be a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted …   New idioms dictionary

  • it is too late to shut the stable-door after the horse has bolted — In early use the proverb referred to horse stealing; has bolted is a modern substitution for the traditional is stolen. Cf. medieval Fr. a tart ferme on l’estable, quant li chevaux est perduz, the stable is shut too late, when the horse is lost.… …   Proverbs new dictionary

  • France — /frans, frahns/; Fr. /frddahonns/, n. 1. Anatole /ann nann tawl /, (Jacques Anatole Thibault), 1844 1924, French novelist and essayist: Nobel prize 1921. 2. a republic in W Europe. 58,470,421; 212,736 sq. mi. (550,985 sq. km). Cap.: Paris. 3.… …   Universalium

  • railroad — /rayl rohd /, n. 1. a permanent road laid with rails, commonly in one or more pairs of continuous lines forming a track or tracks, on which locomotives and cars are run for the transportation of passengers, freight, and mail. 2. an entire system… …   Universalium

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