beat a dead horse

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, flog a dead horse . Try to revive interest in a hopeless issue. For example, Politicians who favor the old single-tax idea are beating a dead horse . From the 1600s on the term dead horse was used figuratively to mean “something of no current value,” specifically an advance in pay or other debt that had to be worked (“flogged”) off. [Second half of 1800s]

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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