beat a dead horse

Verb

beat a dead horse (third-person singular simple present beats a dead horse, present participle beating a dead horse, simple past beat a dead horse, past participle beaten a dead horse or (colloquial) beat a dead horse)

1. (idiomatic) To persist or continue far beyond any purpose, interest or reason.
   • After having shown us three hours of instructional and safety videos, the inspector was simply beating a dead horse by telling us to buckle up as we got into the van.
   • The library director believes the argument about “professionalism” is a “dead horse we should stop beating.”1992, William A. Katz, Reference Services and Reference Processes, McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 220