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

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

The scale of illegal activity means the Supreme Court's December decision to ban new mining licenses is too little, too late, activists say.

From Barron's • May 31, 2026

Still, I fear it’s too little, too late.

From Los Angeles Times • May 15, 2026

It was forward-thinking of them to build it a few years back, so for once it’s not a case of too little too late.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Related Words

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