a day late and a dollar short
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (General Australian): (file)
Adjective
[edit]- (US, idiomatic, predicative) Too late and too feeble to achieve the desired effect.
- His apology was a day late and a dollar short.
Usage notes
[edit]- Permits relatively little variation, but can be found with shy for short, other units for day and dollar, and occasionally a unit of distance instead of dollar.
Adverb
[edit]Translations
[edit]adverbial use of the adjectival form
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