flog

Word family

flog /flɒɡ $ flɑːɡ/ verb (flogged, flogging) [transitiveT]

1 HITto beat a person or animal with a whip or stick 鞭打，棒打〔人、动物〕

He was publicly flogged and humiliated.

他当众受到鞭打和羞辱。

2 informalSELL to sell something 出售，卖

I’m going to flog all my old video tapes.

我准备把旧录像带都卖掉。

► see thesaurus at sell

3. be flogging a dead horse spoken to be wasting time or effort by trying to do something that is impossible 浪费时间，徒劳，白费劲

Examples from the Corpus

be flogging a dead horse• They seem to be flogging a dead horse.• If something is carried on then it is flogging a dead horse or blind ambition.

4 flog something to death British EnglishBrE informalREPEAT to repeat a story or use an idea etc so often that people become bored with it 令人厌烦地重复某事

They take a good idea and flog it to death.

他们有了一个好主意就会念叨个没完。

Examples from the Corpus

flog something to death• It was a good story a month ago, but the newspapers have really flogged it to death.• The beheading of murderers, the flogging and stoning to death of adulterers, the circumcision of women?

Examples from the Corpus

flog• People caught breaking the liquor laws may be flogged.• The age-old argument that poverty breeds crime is again being flogged by social engineers.• He's been on a lot of TV shows, flogging his new book.• They must have been flogging it somewhere pretty regularly.• There was a man at the market who was flogging watches for £10 each.• Don't let him flog you his car -- he's had endless trouble with it.

Origin flog

(1600-1700) Perhaps from Latin flagellare “to whip”

flog verb

Chinese

Corpus