too little, too late

Idioms  

1. Inadequate as a remedy and not in time to be effective, as in The effort to divert the stream into a corn field was too little too late—the houses were already flooded. This term originated in the military, where it was applied to reinforcements that were insufficient and arrived too late to be of help. [First half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

too little, too late

Some locals told AFP this was too little, too late.

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

"It is great Princes Street is opening now but it does feel like it is a little bit too little too late for this time of year," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Finally, some emotion, some human warmth, but too little, too late.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

Meta’s attempts to find other sources of money to pay for it all might be too little, too late.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

But it was a case of too little, too late.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

Related Words

• insufficient
• mere
• minimum
• miserable
• paltry
• puny
• scant
• scanty
• skimpy
• sparse
• tenuous