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.
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