verb (used with object), flogged, flog·ging.
- to beat with a whip, stick, etc., especially as punishment; whip; scourge.
- Slang.
- to sell, especially aggressively or vigorously.
- to promote; publicize.
verb flogs, flogging or flogged
- (tr) to beat harshly, esp with a whip, strap, etc
- (tr) British slang to sell
- (intr) (of a sail) to flap noisily in the wind
- (intr) to make progress by painful work
- NZ to steal
- flog a dead horse mainly British
- to harp on some long discarded subject
- to pursue the solution of a problem long realized to be insoluble
- flog to death to persuade a person so persistently of the value of (an idea or venture) that he or she loses interest in it
1670s, slang, perhaps a schoolboy shortening of Latin flagellare “flagellate.” Related: Flogged; flogging.
see beat a dead horse.