shut/close the stable/barn door after the horse has bolted
to be so late in taking action to prevent something bad happening that the bad event has already happened
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Late
- behind
- behindhand
- belated
- delayed
- door
- down to the wire idiom
- late
- late developer
- late in the day idiom
- latecomer
- latest
- miss
- owl
- schedule
- tardy
- the eleventh hour idiom
- the last minute idiom
- time
- uncivilized
- wire
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Useless and futile