ambulance at the bottom of a cliff
- idiom
- Informal
:
solución reactiva
- The company’s response was just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff, not a long-term fix.
Examples
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Relying on emergency repairs is like putting an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.
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Instead of investing in prevention, they waited for disaster and sent an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.
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It's like having an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff to deal with issues.
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We need to stop relying on an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff strategy.
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Waiting for problems to arise and then reacting is just like having an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.
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The manager's strategy was an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff, addressing issues only after they occurred.
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Using a reactive approach to problem-solving is similar to relying on an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.
Synonyms
1
3.9
A quick, temporary fix that does not solve the real problem
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
ambulance + at + the + bottom + of + a + cliff
The phrase's literal parts (ambulance + bottom of a cliff) create a clear image of emergency help arriving only after a fall, so a learner who knows the words can plausibly infer it criticizes reactive rather than preventive responses. However, the meaning relies on a pragmatic/metaphorical inference (response-after-harm) rather than a directly compositional pattern, and it is not a standard, fully predictable lexicalized construction, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Ambulance at the bottom of a cliff uses the image of an ambulance sitting at the bottom of a cliff, ready to help only after someone falls. That's why it means 'dealing with problems only after they happen' instead of preventing them.