Beat a dead horse

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Meaning

Keep pursuing, arguing or discussing something after further effort cannot change, revive or resolve it. 'Beat' is chiefly US; British English commonly uses 'flog.'

Origin

A prominent early form in the surviving 19th-century evidence is 'flogging a dead horse.' A report of a House of Commons debate in 1859 attributed that wording to the politician John Bright, and a London periodical used it in 1860. These are attestations that the expression was circulating in British political speech, not proof that Bright invented it. The central image is transparent: striking a dead horse cannot make it move or work. 'Dead horse' had older senses, including work paid for in advance, but the evidence does not establish that sailors' wage slang as the source of this idiom, nor is there evidence of a literal custom of beating dead horses.

Research Sources

  1. beat a dead horse Merriam-Webster
  2. flog a dead horse Cambridge University Press
  3. 'When Pigs Fly' and Other Barnyard Idioms Merriam-Webster
  4. Flogging a dead horse Phrase Finder

Variants

  • Flogging a dead horse
  • Flog a dead horse
  • Beating a dead horse

Usage Examples

  • The board has rejected the proposal three times, so another presentation would only beat a dead horse.
  • We kept trying to repair the obsolete printer until Rosa said we were beating a dead horse.
  • Not to beat a dead horse, but the final contract still needs a termination date.

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