flogging

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

flog (flɒɡ)

—vb , flogs, flogging, flogged
1.	(tr) to beat harshly, esp with a whip, strap, etc
2.	slang (Brit) (tr) 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.	chiefly (Brit) flog a dead horse
	a. to harp on some long discarded subject
	b. 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

[C17: probably from Latin flagellāre; see flagellant]

'flogger

—n

'flogging

—n

flog (flɒɡ)

—vb , flogs, flogging, flogged
1.	(tr) to beat harshly, esp with a whip, strap, etc
2.	slang (Brit) (tr) 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.	chiefly (Brit) flog a dead horse
	a. to harp on some long discarded subject
	b. 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

[C17: probably from Latin flagellāre; see flagellant]

'flogger

—n

'flogging

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

flog

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

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

flog definition

[flɑg]

tv.
to promote, hype, or support something; to try to sell something aggressively. : Fred was flogging this car so hard, I figured he was trying to get rid of it.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

flogging

a beating administered with a whip or rod, with blows commonly directed to the person's back. It was imposed as a form of judicial punishment and as a means of maintaining discipline in schools, prisons, military forces, and private homes.

Learn more about flogging with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences

Arts pages were stuffed weekly with the same handful of star faces flogging the same old story.

To help make up the difference, they rely on expropriating land from farmers and flogging it to bullish property developers.

Paying no heed, the commander orders those holding her to tighten their grip and continues the public flogging.

Sales have fallen sharply, as developers wait in vain for demand to pick up rather than flogging their properties at a discount.

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Matching Quote

"I begin, then, with some remarks about 'the meaning of a word.' I think many persons now see all or part of what I shall say: but not all do, and there is a tendency to forget, or to get it slightly wrong. In so far as I am merely flogging the converted, I apologize to them."

-J.L. Austin