flog
Americanverb
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(tr) to beat harshly, esp with a whip, strap, etc
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slang (tr) to sell
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(intr) (of a sail) to flap noisily in the wind
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(intr) to make progress by painful work
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to steal
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to harp on some long discarded subject
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to pursue the solution of a problem long realized to be insoluble
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to persuade a person so persistently of the value of (an idea or venture) that he or she loses interest in it
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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floggernoun
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floggingnoun
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overflogverb (used with object)
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floggableadjective
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unfloggableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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flogsimple
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flogssimple
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have floggedperfect
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has floggedperfect
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am floggingprogressive
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are floggingprogressive
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is floggingprogressive
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have been floggingperfect progressive
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has been floggingperfect progressive
Past
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floggedsimple
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had floggedperfect
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was floggingprogressive
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were floggingprogressive
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had been floggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of flog
First recorded in 1670–80; perhaps blend of flay and jog, variant of jag 1 “to prick, slash”; but cf. flagellate
Explanation
To flog is to beat or hit, especially with a tool like a stick or rod. A cruel trainer might flog an unruly horse with a whip. When you flog someone, you beat them as a way of punishing or controlling them. In the old days, teachers were allowed to flog misbehaving students, and it wasn't uncommon for parents to flog their children as punishment. In fact, the word flog first appeared as school slang in the late 1600s — it's thought to be a shortened form of the Latin word flagellare, "flagellate," or "whip."
Vocabulary lists containing flog
"Shooting an Elephant"
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The Magician's Nephew
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Selection Vocabulary 1, Unit 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Valued at $852 billion, OpenAI does not need to flog $45 Bloop-the-bot-covered tote bags that say “Building Things.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
You’re not out to fleece anyone with egregiously high commissions or merely befriend another member because you want to flog the latest financial product.
From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026
“If you’re right here at the top of the curve, functioning at a high level, if I flog your nicotinic receptors, you’re actually going to have a decline in performance,” he adds.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2025
"They have to flog some of this stuff off, to recoup some of the losses that they've made. And he's quite wily in recognising that."
From BBC ● May 14, 2025
“Half the time you don’t even bother locking it. You’re probably hoping someone’ll flog it so you can collect the insurance.”
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
And it has a sense of humor, opening with a sidewalk preacher who flogs her Bible app.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2025
Hawley's character are as outsized as ever, and the mythical Fahr-goh accent still flogs the ear – but the overwrought, flowery speeches that drowned the 2020 season aren’t as overwhelming.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2023
There is a snaking queue for OnoPops, an ice-cream company that flogs a Spam-based popsicle.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 22, 2017
Avon flogs make-up and skin cream under its own brand.
From Economist ● Apr. 4, 2012
Charity replied: "It means that Charity feeds the lame, and flogs the lazy."
From Sanders' Union Fourth Reader by Sanders, Charles W.
Afterwards she flogged eight fours that were rarely pretty but effective.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
Scores of bare-chested flagellants with covered faces walked barefoot through the dusty streets of Pampanga province's San Fernando as they flogged their backs with bamboo whips in scorching heat.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
Labour's Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, said performance spaces needed to be "treasured and preserved, not flogged off".
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
As well as Cox, who brutally flogged anything short over the leg side, opener Will Jacks also hit three sixes in a 27-ball 45.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2025
We’re lucky to have the jerseys at all, considering each side just flogged them one year from one of the real local clubs or took the discarded ones.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
By the end, the only thing putting a third T20 century in doubt was Sciver-Brunt's flogging of the bowling at the other end.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
The Milan-Cortina Games have hardly been an exception, although there have been no reports of public flogging.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026
But opportunities like last week’s flogging of the new Porsche 911 Turbo S on Circuito Ascari are rare and require considerable schlepping.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
But it’s also part of Netflix’s “rise and fall” true crime genre, cautioning against believing in figures like Johnson, who hooks young men by flogging a version of caveman masculinity that associates virility with dominance.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2025
“See,” he said, “they come quickly; they are flogging the horses, and galloping as hard as they can.”
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
