dead horse

noun

1. something that has ceased to be useful or relevant.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dead horse¹

An Americanism dating back to 1820–30

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. beat / flog a dead horse, to persist in pursuing or trying to revive interest in a project or subject that has lost its usefulness or relevance.

see beat a dead horse.

Example Sentences

As the story of the Coldplay kiss-cam couple ducks out of camera range and into history, and we ride that dead horse into the sunset, let us take a moment to examine what the internet hath wrought.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Standing near the ledge of a magnificent canyon in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park in the hours before sunset, my fiancée Gia and I looked each other in the eyes as we read our vows.

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We had originally planned for Canyonlands rather than Dead Horse Point — not because of the unromantic name but because we’d never heard of it.

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But Flynn explained that the national park had more restrictions and less privacy while Dead Horse offered equally monumental vistas.

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It’s also largely responsible for the smell of the delicately-named dead horse arum, a relative of the so-called corpse flower, or titan arum.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• arrears 
• bill 
• capital 
• commitment 
• credit 
• damage 
• deficit 
• due 
• indebtedness 
• liability 
• mortgage 
• obligation 
• price tag 
• receipt