Word.ws English Dictionary

late in the game

late in the game phrase: very late in the course of an event, so as to have diminished relevance, importance, etc.

Phrase

late in the game

  1. Very late in the course of an event, so as to have diminished relevance, importance, etc.
    • But there she is in her pegged pants, a kind of doo-wop Retro ponytail pulled of to the side, as eligible a candidate as you are likely to find this late in the game.1984, Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, →ISBN, page 6

Forms of late in the game

alternative formlate in the day

Questions about late in the game

What does late in the game mean?
Late in the game means very late in the course of an event, so as to have diminished relevance, importance, etc.
What part of speech is late in the game?
Late in the game is a phrase.

Words near late in the game in the dictionary

  1. late fees
  2. Late Greek
  3. late harvest
  4. Late Heavy Bombardment
  5. late in the day
  6. late in the game
  7. late innings
  8. late lamented
  9. late lamenteds
  10. Late Latin
  11. Late Middle Ages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: late in the game (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “late in the game.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/late_in_the_game. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.