Too Little Too Late
Goods, services, apologies, etc that are insufficient to
do the job even if timely, and arrive too late to be
effective even if they were
sufficient.
It is TLTL to send, to 800 starving people, food for 100 people that doesn't get there until they have all starved to death.
It is TLTL when someone tries, or feigns, to make up for treating someone poorly for a month by being extra-nice for a day, after the injured party started to move on. They usually are not nice enough to make up for the long term harm done to the
relationship; and, even if they were, the momentum to "move on" is usually too great to overcome. One should still try though.
When someone uses insidious innuendo to cock block early in a new
relationship, which, gets the kibosh as a result; and the perpetrator says it was meant only as a joke. The explanation is TLTL in that it is not sufficient to save the
relationship even if they were still on speaking terms, because first impressions tend to be controlling; and, it's too late because the
relationship is already dissolving. But, usually this type of
cock blocker will use her/his talents to blame the victim rather than try to fix things; this will save the CBs reputation and likely get her/him laid.
A mere apology for an irreversibly harmful prank or other mistreatment is TLTL.
It is TLTL to reimburse a victim for a theft committed 20 years ago, to a dieing victim, without paying interest. The victim won't have a chance to spend it, and it won't have the buying power that it had 20 years ago because inflation reduced its value.
