too little, too late

English

Noun

too little, too late

1. Used as a predicate or a pro-sentence to indicate insufficiency.

   That's just half what was due last week. Too little, too late.

   Committing half his reserves nearly three hours after the attack was too little, too late.

   • 2011 December 7, David Ornstein, “FC Basel 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Jones forced a header over the line after Danny Welbeck was denied from close range and fellow substitute Federico Macheda hit the woodwork, but it was too little, too late.

   • 2022 July 14, Sam Jones, “Spanish response to Covid poverty was too little, too late, report says”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The Spanish government’s efforts to tackle the economic turmoil unleashed by the Covid pandemic were “too little, too late and too few”, according to a report that finds thousands of people are still reliant on emergency food aid and facing even greater hardship as prices soar.

Coordinate terms

• a day late and a dollar short

Translations

Translations

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 太少，太遲／太少，太迟 (tài shǎo, tài chí)

• Finnish: liian vähän, liian myöhään
• German: zu spät und zu wenig, zwar verspätet, dafür aber nur halb
• Italian: troppo poco, troppo tardi
• Polish: za mało i za późno
• Portuguese: muito pouco, muito tarde
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: demasiado poco y demasiado tarde

See also

• close the stable door after the horse has bolted
• it's too late for sorry
• woulda, coulda, shoulda