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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

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.