eslHQ
Post

before the horse has bolted

Posted by Ana laura · February 28, 2012 · 2 replies

Hi there!

It's me again and I would appreciate if you could help me understand the meaning of the following phrase, it was used by a radio presenter the other day...

He was talking about a protest that was recently taking place in London and he said:

''I don't want to announce it before the horse has bolted''

I know this comes from the idiom 'to lock the stable door after the horse has bolted'' and I already know what it means but I'd like to know why he expressed it in that way and what he meant by that.

I hope I made my point clear

Thank you very much in advance🙂

2 Replies

susan53

Announce what? I'd imagine something bad -?? If so , my interpretation of this would be : I don't want to announce that XXX has happened before it has, because it might not. In other words - I don't want to be pessimistic about something that might not actually happen.
It's difficult to say without knowing the full context though.

Ana laura OP

Hi Susan

Yes, I think that's exactly what he meant because he wasn't completely sure about it.

Thank you very much for clarifying this..it was quite simple but I wasn't able to see it! 😂

Thanks!