close the stable door after the horse has bolted (English, verb)
expansion: 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)
Senses:
glosses: To attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred; to design and implement a preventive mechanism that is too late (after the first failure instead of before).
tags: idiomatic
Forms:
form: closes the stable door after the horse has bolted
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: closing the stable door after the horse has bolted
tags: participle
present
form: closed the stable door after the horse had bolted
tags: participle
past
form: closed the stable door after the horse had bolted
tags: past