to flog a dead horse
1
7.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
dar palos a un muerto
- We should stop discussing that issue; it's just flogging a dead horse now.
Examples
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Deal with it and stop flogging a dead horse.
Blog text (16) -
But at this point, the media "horse race" narrative is flogging a dead horse.
Blog text (24) -
Talk about flogging a dead horse!
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I am not reaching out and flogging a dead horse.
Blog text (2) -
I'd say you were flogging a dead horse, old man.
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Jeez, talk about flogging a dead horse.
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There's no point in bringing it up again; we're just flogging a dead horse.
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Continuing this debate would be flogging a dead horse, as the decision is already made.
Synonyms
6
7.5
Continuing to talk about something already decided and pointless
4
6.5
Try very hard to do something even though you will probably fail
2
7.9
To waste time and effort without making progress
1
8.2
To try many times to do something without success and feel frustrated
1
9.9
Spending time or effort on something that will not work
Antonyms
How Fruitless
- Informal
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7.5
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Surface Forms
Morphology
flog + a + dead + horse
The literal image of 'flog' (to beat) + 'a dead horse' (an animal that is no longer alive) readily suggests the futility of trying to revive or change something irretrievable, so a learner can infer the idea of wasting effort. However, this is a metaphorical extension rather than a direct compositional meaning and relies on pragmatic/cultural inference, so the sense is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom flog a dead horse comes from the simple picture of someone beating a dead animal to make it move: to flog means to beat and a dead horse cannot move, so the action is pointless. That's why it means 'to waste effort on something that will not work'.