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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

chastise, spank, castigate, whale, cane, hide, scourge, beat, flay, trounce, paddle, whack, leather, stripe, flagellate, thrash, hit, wax, belt, lather

Examples from the Web for flogged

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Boys were flogged at boundaries, to impress the boundaries on their memory.

  • Boys were flogged when criminals were hanged, to impress the awful warning on them.

  • None of us got flogged, nor were we even threatened with the gang-way.

    Ned Myers

    James Fenimore Cooper

  • But wayward children must, with all kindness, be flogged into obedience.

    Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • His eyes wandered, his lips trembled, and he looked like a man who had been flogged.

    The Christian

    Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for flogged

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 flogged

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 flogged

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.