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MUSCOVITE Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

'beat a dead horse' and its variants

Hi,

What other verbs can be used for "beat" in this phrase?

Some online dictionaries also list "to flog".
I wonder if the version with "flog" is somewhat outdated/too formal/etc. as compared to the most common one?

There is also a version with "to kick" mentioned in one of the online E-R dictionaries I normally use, but this variant looks "suspect" to me (because I haven't been able to find any hits with "to kick the dead ..." in COCA.

mus-te
  

Top answer

"To kick a dead horse" is an idiom. "Flog" may be a regional variant. I'm sure I've heard it.

— Avangi

  • "To kick a dead horse" is an idiom.
  • "Flog" may be a regional variant.
  • I'm sure I've heard it.
  • You're probably also right that "flog" may be outdated.
  • The old folks might still use it.
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16 Answers
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"To kick a dead horse" is an idiom. "Flog" may be a regional variant. I'm sure I've heard it.
You're probably also right that "flog" may be outdated. The old folks might still use it.

(I don't believe I've ever heard "to kick the dead horse.")
"There's no use [in] kicking a dead horse" is common.
"It's no use to kick a dead horse" is common, as you say.
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Thank you, Avangi!
Avangi(I don't believe I've ever heard "to kick the dead horse.")"There's no use [in] kicking a dead horse" is common."It's no use to kick a dead horse" is common, as you say.
Thanks for pointing out my mistake (I was erroneously looking for "kick THE..." in COCA,....sorry!)

The following is what GLOWBE just reported to me:

t
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I should have said that "to beat a dead horse" is perhaps the most common form of the idiom. (There's no use in beating a dead horse.) When I saw what I had written, I couldn't quite believe it.
My brain is a little fried these days! Sorry. - A.
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I, a speaker of BrE, have used and heard only 'flog' in my 60+ years on the planet.

The British National Corpus has five citations for flog (-s/-ging/-ged) a dead horse; It has none for beat or kick.
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fivejedjonI, a speaker of BrE, have used and heard only 'flog' in my 60+ years on the planet.The British National Corpus has five citations for flog (-s/-ging/-ged) a dead horse; It has none for beat or kick.
Thank you, fivejedjon!

If you could do me a favor and answer the following questions? (I badly need to know a BE speaker's point of view,
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MUSCOVITE(1) Is it true that a large enough proportion of BrEng speakers say "I live ON ABC street" nowadays?
What's large enough?

In any case, I can't give you a satisfactory answer, I am afraid. My impression is that British people mainly use 'in', but I am now retired, and probably pretty conservative in my language. The same is true of most of the
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OK. I see your point.
Still, if I used a purely BE corpus to "weigh" the proportion ("live on the street" vs "live in the street"), would it be a valid/objective/accurate enough check in your opinion?
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It seems to me that the Americans take pleasure in beating a dead horse, while the British enjoy flogging that same poor animal.
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In the US, only "beat a dead horse" is used. This has only one meaning, which is to keep dwelling on something that finished or settled, as in: "Don't bring that up again. It's finished and we need to move on. You're beating a dead horse."

In the US, there is an expression about kicking a defenseless animal, but a dog, not a horse, "kick a dying dog," which implies a completely repreh
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I've read all the posts on this and, frankly, you're flogging a dead horse

Dave
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