Word.ws English Dictionary

flogging a dead pony

flogging a dead pony is the present participle and gerund of flog a dead pony.

Meaning of flog a dead pony

Verb

flog a dead pony (third-person singular simple present flogs a dead pony, present participle flogging a dead pony, simple past and past participle flogged a dead pony)

  1. (idiomatic) To attempt to get more out of something that cannot give more; to attempt to arouse fresh interest in something that is either hopeless or already settled.
    • […] much greater impact on actual practice when the topic wasn't flogging a dead pony (advocating a change already wide-spread) […]1994 August 17, Lois-ellin Datta, A Matter of Consensus (Working Paper), Washington: US Dept. of Education, →OCLC, ERIC ED379290, page 15

Questions about flogging a dead pony

What is flogging a dead pony the present participle and gerund of?
Flogging a dead pony is the present participle and gerund of flog a dead pony.

Words near flogging a dead pony in the dictionary

  1. flogger
  2. floggers
  3. floggeth
  4. flogging
  5. flogging a dead horse
  6. flogging a dead pony
  7. flogging someone round the fleet
  8. flogging the bishop
  9. flogging the clock
  10. flogging the dolphin
  11. flogging the log

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: flogging a dead pony (page history and authors); flog a dead pony (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “flogging a dead pony.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flogging_a_dead_pony. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.