What Does “Beating A Dead Horse” Mean? How To Use It

There are a lot of old sayings that have made it through the course of time into modern-day language. These sayings have a way of making our discourse more interesting.

Originating in the mid-19th century, “to beat a dead horse” means to continue discussing something that’s already been discussed. Additionally, it can mean wasting time and effort trying to do something that’s impossible. It comes from a time when people beat horses to make them go faster.

Meaning of the Phrase

Flogging was a punishment whereby a person was repeatedly hit with a whip or a stick. Initially, this phrase was (and still is in the U.K.) “flogging a dead horse” but in America, it’s become popularized as “beating a dead horse.” Regardless of how you say it, a “dead horse” is a figure of speech that was used up until the 1630s to mean that something is no longer useful. Altogether this is an expression that you can use whenever you want to say that someone has made an effort or focused on something that’s impossible, irrelevant, or unimportant. In other words, you’re wasting your time because there’s no way in which you’ll be successful so ultimately your efforts won’t matter or simply that you’re engaging in a pointless pursuit.

Synonyms

When you want to say that someone is “beating a dead horse” without using the phrase there are a variety of ways to do so including:

• belabor
• dwell upon
• go on about
• harp on
• linger over
• overwork
• pound
• rehash
• repeat

Synonymous Phrases

There are also some other phrases that you can say that have the same meaning as “beating a dead horse.” These include:

• “Teaching grandma to suck eggs” is a phrase that’s used in New Zealand to mean to explain or advocate for something the listener already knows about.
• “Making a silk purse from a cow’s ear” means that a task is futile (e.g. like “beating a dead horse”).
• “You can take a horse to water, but cannot make it drink,” means you can offer someone an opportunity but you can’t force them to accept it.
• “To carry water to the sea” is a Dutch saying that means that you’re engaging in work that’s absolutely useless.
• “Beating a dead dog” is used in some parts of the United Kingdom means wasting time on something.

Antonyms

A phrase that means the exact opposite of “beating a dead horse” is “preaching to the choir.” This phrase means that someone really isn’t listening to you anymore because they already understand and agree with everything you’re saying. “Pushing at an open door” has a similar meaning and was popular from the 1920s through the 1980s which is when “preaching to the choir” became popular.

Origin of the Phrase

While some people believe that the phrase “beating a dead horse” originated early in the 17th century, it doesn’t occur as a written expression until the middle of the 19th century. According to the London newspaper Watchman and Wesleyan Advertiser, this is when (1859) the English politician and orator John Bright used the expression in one of his speeches saying:

“It was notorious that Mr. Bright was dissatisfied with his winter reform campaign and rumor said that he had given up his effort with the exclamation that it was like flogging a dead horse.”

Later, Bright gave a speech to the British Parliament in which he was reported to have used this phrase again. Here he said that trying to get members interested in the Reform Act of 1867 was like “flogging a dead horse.”

Unfortunately, Bright’s use of this phrase isn’t as verifiable as the instance in 1872 when this phrase was used in an article in “The Globe” a copy of which was owned by the Earl of Oxford, Edward Harley. Herein it was reported that “Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then, playing, as it is said, for a dead horse, did, by happy fortune, recover it again.” In other words, Foster apparently “played for” the dead horse by seeking to be paid for work that he didn’t perform and was able to regain his fortune by doing so.

This report may not be far from the truth when you consider that most sailors were paid in advance for their first month’s work. In fact, in “Old England and New Zealand” by Alfred Simmons, we read a detailed account of the background for this ceremony that was performed by a ship’s crew at the end of their first month of employment – when they started being paid again. This was an important time for the crew because they’d spend their initial wages before leaving the harbor thus embarking on their voyage without any money. In this situation, the horse would symbolize their hard work and the death was a metaphorical way of describing their lack of motivation.

 The Phrase’s Relationship to Horse Racing

There are a lot of phrases in use today that stem from the world of horse racing. It’s possible that “beating a dead horse” is one of them since a jockey usually carries a riding crop with him – something that looks like a small whip. The jockey will use this to “beat” his horse on the thigh to encourage it to run faster.

In the world of horse racing, this phrase was probably first used in the mid-1800s. At that time it was thought “acceptable” to beat a horse to get it to run faster (something that’s no longer deemed acceptable today). With this in mind, we can see how this phrase may have arisen: Someone wouldn’t “beat a dead horse” to get it to run faster because doing so would be pointless. In fact, this would be a waste of both time and effort.

Although there’s still some controversy associated with how horses are treated in races, there was a purpose to “beating” a live horse throughout the race. Doing so would serve a purpose: encouraging the horse to speed up. However, beating a dead horse is pointless or even futile.

Usage of the Phrase

While this is a phrase that’s historically tied to horse racing, it’s also been popular in many other places throughout our culture including:

• Comedy Central’s series “South Park” aired Season 6 Episode 1 on March 6th, 2002. Entitled “Jared Has Aides” it shows Subway spokesman Jared Fogle repeatedly beating a dead horse. Then on December 13, 2002, Penny Arcade created a video game-related webcomic which they entitled “Product Cycle.” It featured a panel in which a man was shown beating a dead horse.
• According to the Urban Dictionary, as of April 6th, 2004 the phrase became commonly defined in popular culture as “the practice of overusing a bad joke until it is no longer funny.”
• YouTube had its first video entitled “Beating Dead Horse” uploaded on March 21st, 2006. This video featured footage of someone beating a dead horse in the role-playing game “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.” Within 7 years this video managed to gain more than 100,000 views.
• The webcomic “Dilbert” featured a dead horse that was hired for beatings on December 17, 2007.
• The satirical wiki “Uncyclopedia” featured a page entitled “Beat a Dead Horse” on February 2, 2008.
• TV Tropes featured a page entitled “Dead Horse Trope” on April 18, 2009.
• The blogger Kathy Dishman posted a demotivational poster of a man sitting on a dead horse on February 14, 2012.

Example Sentences

Now that you know that this phrase is popular in our culture you may want to try using it yourself. Here are a few sentences to help you get started with this:

• While I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, I have no idea what happened.
• Would I be beating a dead horse to ask for another recount of the votes?
• Although he continues to try to get his book published I think he’s just beating a dead horse.
• Wishing for a different outcome than what the judge has brought about, in this case, would be like beating a dead horse.
• Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole is like beating a dead horse.
• Now that your husband is happily remarried trying to win him back is like beating a dead horse.
• We’ve spent enough time talking about it. There’s no point in continuing to beat a dead horse.
• I thought the problem was resolved so why are you continuing to beat a dead horse?
• Why do you continue bringing up your old problems? It’s like you want to continue to beat a dead horse.

Conclusion

“Beating a dead horse” is an English idiom that comes from the horse racing world. Regardless of how questionable the literal act of beating a horse may be, this phrase is still one that has a great meaning for people. In the past, it literally meant to beat a horse but today its figurative meaning is that you’re still trying to do something that’s impossible or something that’s already been decided or done.