亡羊补牢 — Chinese idiom
亡羊补牢
wáng yáng bǔ láo
Traditional: 亡羊補牢
Meaning
- lit. to mend the pen after sheep are lost
- fig. to act belatedly
- better late than never
- to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted
Character by character
- 亡wángdeath, destruction; to lose; to perish
- 羊yángsheep, goat
- 补bǔto fix, to mend, to patch, to restore
- 牢láopen, prison, stable; fast, firm, secure
Idioms sharing a character
- 亡命之徒 wáng mìng zhī tú
- 亡国灭种 wáng guó miè zhǒng
- 人琴俱亡 rén qín jù wáng
- 名存实亡 míng cún shí wáng
- 唇亡齿寒 chún wáng chǐ hán
- 国破家亡 guó pò jiā wáng
- 家破人亡 jiā pò rén wáng
- 有名亡实 yǒu míng wáng shí
- 自取灭亡 zì qǔ miè wáng
- 杀猪宰羊 shā zhū zǎi yáng
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3). Retrieved 2026-10-22.