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flog

[flog, flawg]
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verb (used with object), flogged, flog·ging.
  1. to beat with a whip, stick, etc., especially as punishment; whip; scourge.
  2. Slang.
    1. to sell, especially aggressively or vigorously.
    2. to promote; publicize.
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Origin of flog

1670–80; perhaps blend of flay and jog, variant of jag1 to prick, slash; but cf. flagellate
Related formsflog·ga·ble, adjectiveflog·ger, nouno·ver·flog, verb (used with object), o·ver·flogged, o·ver·flog·ging.un·flog·ga·ble, adjectiveun·flogged, adjective

Synonyms

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1. thrash, lash.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

chastisespankcastigatewhalecanehidescourgebeatflaytrouncepaddlewhackleatherstripeflagellatethrashhitwaxbeltlather

Examples from the Web for flog

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Fyles, watching, fancied that the fugitive had begun to flog his horse.

    The Law-Breakers

    Ridgwell Cullum

  • It is impossible to get Latin into a boy unless you flog it into him.

  • You flog us like children, but you forget that we are grown, and that it is more than the body that smarts.

    The Wild Geese

    Stanley John Weyman

  • If I can trace a bad word to any man's mouth, I'll flog him till he can't move.

    The O'Ruddy

    Stephen Crane

  • Your uncle wished me to reduce you to subjection, and to flog you till you came to your senses.

    Breaking Away

    Oliver Optic

British Dictionary definitions for flog

flog

verb flogs, flogging or flogged
  1. (tr) to beat harshly, esp with a whip, strap, etc
  2. (tr) British slang to sell
  3. (intr) (of a sail) to flap noisily in the wind
  4. (intr) to make progress by painful work
  5. NZ to steal
  6. flog a dead horse mainly British
    1. to harp on some long discarded subject
    2. to pursue the solution of a problem long realized to be insoluble
  7. flog to death to persuade a person so persistently of the value of (an idea or venture) that he or she loses interest in it
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Derived Formsflogger, nounflogging, noun

Word Origin

C17: probably from Latin flagellāre; see flagellant
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for flog

v.

1670s, slang, perhaps a schoolboy shortening of Latin flagellare "flagellate." Related: Flogged; flogging.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with flog

flog

see beat a dead horse.

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.