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

His mother told BBC Wales "nobody cared, nobody was listening" and it was "too little too late for him".

From BBC

Steinberg went on to co-write songs in the early 2000s, such as JoJo's Too Little Too Late and Demi Lovato's Give Your Heart a Break.

From BBC

Committed defence kept England at bay, with No 8 Ben Earl's try two minutes from time too little, too late for the visitors.

From Barron's

But the efforts to shut down the energy transition may be too little, too late, said Hannah Safford, former director of transportation and resilience at the White House Climate Policy Office under the Biden administration.

From Los Angeles Times

When the Pats added another touchdown with a couple minutes left, it was too little, too late.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

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