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
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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:
I share this not to publicly flog myself for another travel faux pas but to give you hope or prompt you to broaden your search.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 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
Posters to flog tournament tickets would invariably display her image.
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2024
“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’s an equally queasy undercurrent in “Shattered Glass,” which flogs a glass ceiling metaphor.
From New York Times ● Aug. 25, 2014
Avon flogs make-up and skin cream under its own brand.
From Economist ● Apr. 4, 2012
But nothing can be more offensive than the building which every tourist flogs donkey in his hurry to see-old Mohammed Ali's "Folly" in the citadel.
From Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah — Volume 1 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Wholesale costs in the U.S. jumped again in August, flogged by higher gasoline prices, in the first of two inflation reports that will dictate if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates next week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Mr. Mamdani’s team flogged a 2001 city memo that estimated the city could face 35,000 potential plaintiffs from “toxic tort cases that might arise in the next few decades.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 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
Abhishek had only made one score over 15 in this tournament but flogged the ball to all parts.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026
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
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
He began by timing the ball to all corners of Lahore before flogging England's bowlers whenever they dropped too short.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025
After witnessing a sailor’s flogging, Cândido led a revolt against regular whipping by officers in 1910.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2024
Of the twelve members of the committee, five were elsewhere, flogging some or another piece of legislation.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
