flogging dead horse
Pointless continued effort
Flogging a dead horse is persisting with something already finished, failed, or beyond revival—continuing to argue a settled point or push a project everyone knows is hopeless.
The image is of beating a horse that can no longer respond.
Usually appears as beating a dead horse in American English: Bringing up the merger again? You're flogging a dead horse.
- futileIncapable of producing results
- pointlessLacking any purpose
- waste of timeUnproductive expenditure of hours
- beatingRepeated striking or pulsing
- going nowhereLacking progress or direction
stubborn · persistence · exhaustion · giving up · lost cause · uphill battle · lost battle · repetition · nagging · tiresome · relentless · worn out · useless · frustration · spinning wheels · brick wall · deaf ears · banging head
flogging dead horsemaking hay while the sun shines
Capitalizing on favorable circumstances
bearing fruit · paying dividends · gaining traction · fertile ground · on a roll
flogging dead horsegoing concern
Profitable, continuing enterprise
open door · window of opportunity · ripe for the picking · low-hanging fruit · untapped potential
flogging dead horsemoving on
Proceeding past something
reading the room · pivoting · letting go · turning the page · rolling with the punches
flog, flogs, flogged, flogger, floggers, dead, deaden, deadens, deadened