to flog the dolphin
1
9.9
- idiom
- Offensive
:
hacerse una paja
- He joked that he spent too much time on his computer instead of flogging the dolphin like he used to.
Examples
-
Better luck in your next relationship; maybe you can find a guy like George or Goose who spends all their time on the internet figuring out reasons to not flog the dolphin.
Blog text (19) -
Before his big date, he decided not to flog the dolphin to ensure he was feeling his best.
-
To prepare for his weekend getaway, he made a point to avoid flogging the dolphin all week.
Synonyms
30
9.9
To touch your own private parts to get sexual pleasure
8
9.9
To touch your own private parts to get sexual pleasure, usually by a man
1
9.9
To touch a man's penis to get sexual pleasure
To touch your own penis to get sexual pleasure
To touch a man's penis to make him sexually excited
To touch his own penis to feel sexual pleasure
How Vulgar
- Offensive
30
9.9
- Offensive
1
9.9
- Offensive
98
7.7
- NSFW
Surface Forms
Morphology
flog + the + dolphin
The literal meanings of 'flog' (to beat), 'the', and 'dolphin' (the animal) provide no transparent cue to the sexual sense 'to masturbate'; the phrase is a slang euphemism whose mapping from words to meaning is cultural and idiomatic. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words but has not seen this slang would not be able to derive the intended meaning.
Etymology
Flog the dolphin is a funny slang phrase that may come from putting the verb flog and the animal dolphin together to hide a private action. One popular story says people imagined the silly picture of moving a toy dolphin as a joke, and that image is why the phrase now means 'to masturbate'.