A punishment involving hitting someone repeatedly with a whip or stick; also means to work very hard or to sell something aggressively.
From the verb 'flog,' possibly from Latin 'flagellum' meaning whip, though some scholars connect it to Dutch 'floggen.' The word entered English in the 17th century and was used to describe both physical punishment and hard work.
The phrase 'flogging a dead horse' means trying hard at something hopeless—it comes from the literal practice of beating an exhausted animal, and shows how vivid animal-based expressions shape our everyday language.
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