close the stable door after the horse has bolted

English

Alternative forms

• close the barn door after the horse has bolted, lock the stable door after the horse has bolted, shut the stable door after the horse has bolted, close the stable door after the horse has been stolen, lock the stable door after the horse has been stolen

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

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)

1. (idiomatic) To attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred; to design and implement a preventive mechanism 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.

Related terms

• barn door, horsebarn

Translations

to attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 亡羊補牢／亡羊补牢 (zh) (wángyángbǔláo, literally “to repair the pen after sheep is lost”)

• Dutch: als het kalf verdronken is, dempt men de put, achter de feiten aanlopen
• Finnish: haukotella kissan suussa (literally “[it's too late for a mouse] to yawn when in a cat's mouth”)
• French: c’est de la moutarde après dîner (fr) (literally “it's mustard after dinner”)
• German: den Brunnen zudecken, wenn das Kind hineingefallen ist (literally “to cover the well after the child fell into it”)
• Hungarian: eső után köpönyeg (hu)
• Italian: chiudere il recinto dopo che i buoi sono scappati (literally “to close the gate after the oxen have escaped”), chiudere la stalla quando i buoi sono scappati, chiudere il cancello quando i buoi sono scappati
• Korean: 소 잃고 외양간 고친다 (ko) (so ilko oeyanggan gochinda, literally “one fixes the barn after losing the cow”)
• Macedonian: по свадба тапани (po svadba tapani)
• Polish: mądry Polak po szkodzie (pl)
• Russian: после пожара да за водой (posle požara da za vodoj, literally “fetching water after the fire”)
• Spanish: a buenas horas mangas verdes
• Thai: วัวหายล้อมคอก (th) (wuua-hǎai-lɔ́ɔm-kɔ̂ɔk, literally “to create a pen after the oxen have disappeared”)

See also

• late in the day
• that ship has sailed
• too little, too late
• Scarborough warning
• sell past the close

Further reading

• “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.