beat a dead horse
Slang Dictionary

dead horse definition


  1. n.
    a dead issue, especially one that is referred to continually. (Often with beat, whip.) : Forget it! Don't waste time whipping a dead horse.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Slang Dictionary

horse definition


  1. n.
    heroin. (Drugs. Because it begins with H.) : Horse is still very popular in the big cities.
  2. n.
    horse dung. : I got a job shoveling horse out of the stables.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

beat a dead horse

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]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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